ProfessorRongjun Chen

Overview of Biomaterials and Nanomedicine Lab

Our areas of research comprise engineering of biomaterials for biomedical applications, with focuses on:
i) Design, synthesis and manufacturing of polymers, lipids and bio-functional nanoparticles for targeted delivery of active pharmaceutical agents through fundamental understanding of their transport processes across extracellular and intracellular barriers
ii) Biomedical applications for targeted nanomedicine, room temperature-stable RNA vaccine formulation, cell and gene therapy, and targeted treatment of diseases including cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disorders

Current research projects include:

1) Polymer-functionalised lipid nanoparticles (PF-LNPs) for thermostable RNA vaccine formulations
Postdoctoral researcher: Dr Apanpreet Kaur
2) Polymer-enveloped lipid nanoparticles (PE-LNPs) for thermostable RNA vaccine formulations
Postdoctoral researcher: Dr Karnyart Samnuan
3) Bio-inspired nanomedicines based on nanoerythrosomes for targeted thrombolytic therapy
Postdoctoral researcher: Dr Nicole Henry
4) Synthesis and characterization of novel ionizable lipids and lipid nanoparticles for nucleic acid delivery
PhD student: Yifan Ding
5) Production of polymer-enveloped lipid nanoparticles (PE-LNPs) for targeted payload delivery and improved stability
PhD student: You Cheng
6) Production of pH-responsive polymer-functionalised lipid nanoparticles (PF-LNPs) for targeted payload delivery and improved stability
PhD student: Zichen Fan
7) Multifunctional polymer-based nanomedicines for intracellular therapeutic delivery
PhD student: Yeting Jin
8) Bio-inspired cell membrane-derived drug delivery systems for targeted thrombolytic therapy
PhD student: Diya Agrawal
9) Smart hybrid systems for oral delivery of biomacromolecules
PhD student: Peiyu Kong
10) Nebulisable lipid nanoparticle formulations
PhD student: Yuanyuan Gu

11) A lipid nanoparticle-based system for delivery and storage of biomacromolecules

PhD student: Carina Xinyu Zhuang (joint supervision with Prof Jerry Heng)

12) A microfluidic Micro-Foundry for engineering multi-compartment lipid nanoparticles as next-gen therapeutic carriers

PhD student: Amy Higgins (joint supervision with Dr Yuval Elani and Prof Oscar Ces)

Alumni - Postdocs:

9) Dr Michal Kopytynski, now Senior Scientist at MSD, UK
8) Dr Yu Huang, now Associate Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in the School of Medicine, China
7) Dr Ruijiao Dong (joint supervision with Prof Andrew Livingston), now Associate Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in the Shanghai Center for Systems Biomedicine, China
6) Dr Xuhan Liu, now Associate Research Fellow (Associate Research Professor) at Shenzhen University General Hospital, China
5) Dr Isabel Neto (joint supervision with Prof Molly Stevens)
4) Dr Marie Bachelet, now Project Manager at Nestlé Research Center, Switzerland
3) Dr Shengrong Guo (joint supervision with Prof Dejian Zhou), now Professor in Pharmaceutics at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in the School of Pharmacy
2) Dr Georg A. Feichtinger (joint supervision with Dr Xuebin Yang), now Head of Vectorology at Evotec
1) Dr James Tunstall, now Product Manager at SciMed

Alumni - PhDs:

19) Shuning Xiang (2025), joint supervision with Prof Jerry Heng

PhD thesis: "Development of nanoporous packaging for improving stability and pulmonary delivery of vaccine formulations"

18) Yuying Tang (2025)

PhD thesis: "Synthesis, characterisation and bioapplications of sequence-controlled multifunctional multiblock polyethers"

17) Yifan Liu (2025)

PhD thesis "Virus-mimicking polymer-enveloped lipid nanoparticles for enhanced intracellular RNA delivery and improved thermostability"

16) Xinyu Lu (2024)

PhD thesis: "Multifunctional polyester-based stimuli-responsive polymeric nanoparticles for therapeutic delivery"

Passed PhD viva with no corrections; awarded the 2024 Julia Higgins Centenary Prize
15) Harriet Ellis (2024), joint supervision with Prof. Sivaramesh Wigneshweraraj)
PhD thesis: Novel insights into the adaptive responses that accompany long-term nitrogen starvation in Escherichia coli
14) Jiawei Cui (2024)
PhD thesis: Synthesis and characterisation of bio-inspired polymers for pH-mediated intracellular delivery and therapeutic applications
13) Jie Ren (2024), in collaboration with GSK, Stevenage
PhD thesis: "Cryopreservation of mammalian cells based on intracellular saccharide delivery using membrane-permeabilising biopolymers"
12) Joana Dos Santos (2024), principal supervisor Prof Athanasios (Sakis) Mantalaris
PhD thesis: "Towards personalised medicine – developing a 3D leukaemia biomimicry"
11) Nicole Henry (2023)
PhD thesis: "Cell membrane-derived nanoscale systems for drug delivery applications"
Passed PhD viva with no corrections; awarded the 2022 Weinberg Prize
10) Gabriella Morrison (2022)
PhD thesis: "Bio-inspired pH-responsive polymers for intracellular delivery of macromolecules and cell engineering applications"
9) Apanpreet Kaur (2022)
PhD thesis: "Novel virus-mimicking polymer-functionalised lipid nanoparticles for enhanced intracellular RNA delivery and stable storage at ambient temperatures"
Passed PhD viva with no corrections; awarded the 2022 Julia Higgins Centenary Prize
8) Li Yu (2020)
PhD thesis: "Synthesis and characterisation of sequence-controlled multifunctional multiblock polyesters via quantitative one-pot iterative living ring-opening polymerisation (QOIL-ROP)"
7) Michal Kopytynski (2018), in collaboration with AstraZeneca/MedImmune
PhD thesis: "A versatile platform for intracellular delivery of various macromolecules using a pH-responsive, biomimetic polymer"
6) Anna Sofia Tascini (2018), joint supervision with Prof Fernando Bresme and Prof John Seddon
PhD thesis: "Molecular insight into the barrier function of sebaceous and skin lipids and the interactions of lipid membranes with antimicrobial peptides and therapeutic nanoparticles"
5) Shiqi Wang (2018)
PhD thesis: "Synthesis and characterisation of stimuli-responsive amino acid-based polymeric materials for drug delivery"
Awarded the 2018 Weinberg Prize
Now Docent (Adjunct Professor) and Principal Investigator at University of Helsinki in the Faculty of Pharmacy, Finland
4) Marie Bachelet (2017)
PhD thesis: "Synthesis, physicochemical characterisation and biological evaluation of polymer-functionalised gold nanoparticles for cancer treatment"
3) Siyuan Chen (2017)
PhD thesis: "Biomimetic nanoscale systems for pH-triggered intracellular drug delivery"
Passed PhD viva with no corrections; awarded the 2017 Dudley Newitt Prize for Experimental Excellence
Now Professor at Nanjing Tech University in the College of Materials Science and Engineering, China
2) Deborah Roebuck (2016), in collaboration with AstraZeneca/MedImmune
PhD thesis: "Investigation into synthetic amphiphilic polymers for intracellular delivery"
Passed PhD viva with no corrections
1) Lei Song (2013), joint supervision with Prof Dejian Zhou
PhD thesis: "Development of a targeted nanoscale drug delivery system using pH-responsive DNA-nanoparticle conjugates"

Alumni - Visiting Researchers and UROP Research Students

28) Justin Liew Chun Ping (2025), UROP Research Student, Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London

27) Olivia Beniston (2023), IROP Visiting Researcher, Department of Chemical Engineering at MIT, USA
26) Yicong Wang (2022-2023), UROP Research Student, Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London
25) David Goh (2021-2023), UROP Research Student, Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London
24) Thomas Nok Cheng (2019-2022), UROP Research Student, Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London
23) Ihsaan Furlonge (2022), UROP Research Student, School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences at Queen Mary University of London
22) Yuyang Cen (2021), UROP Research Student, Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London
21) Yuxin Liu (2020), UROP Research Student, Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London
20) Enshu Liang (2019-2020), UROP Research Student Student, Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London
19) Annabelle Ying Lu (2019), UROP Research Student, Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College London
18) Hongtian Yang (2019), UROP Research Student, Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College London
17) Sudha Shankar (2018), Visiting PhD Researcher funded under the Newton-Bhabha programme of India (DST) and UK (British Council), CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, India
16) Prof Guiju Zhang (2018-2019), Visiting Scholar, School of Food and Chemical Engineering at Beijing Technology and Business University, China
15) Youlim Ha (2017-2018), Post-MSc Researcher, Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London
14) Wanyue Ouyang (2017), Tsinghua Xuetang Talent Programme Visiting Research Student, Department of Chemistry at Tsinghua University, China
13) Miselle Hengardi (2017), UROP Research Student, Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London
12) Jan Hasa (2017), Visiting Researcher funded by the Erasmus+ Scheme, Department of Chemical Engineering at University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague
11) Yuan Zhao (2016-2017), Visiting PhD Researcher funded by the China Scholarship Council, Department of Chemistry at Tsinghua University, China
10) Liwei Wu (2015-2016), Post-MSc Researcher, Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London
9) Qianyue Zhang (2016), UROP Research Student Student, Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London
8) Michelle S Teoh (2016), UROP Research Student Student, Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London
7) Gabriel K Chai (2016), UROP Research Student Student, Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London
6) Bayan Al-Balushi (2016), UROP Research Student Student, Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London
5) Malak B Abu Sharkh (2015), IROP Visiting Researcher, Department of Chemical Engineering at MIT, USA
4) Jacek Osinski (2015), UROP Research Student, Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at University of Cambridge
3) Suparna Saha (2015), Visiting PhD Researcher funded under the Newton-Bhabha programme of India (DST) and UK (British Council), Department of Polymer Science & Technology at University of Calcutta, India
2) Xu Zhou (2014), Tsinghua Xuetang Talent Programme Visiting Research Student, Department of Chemistry at Tsinghua University, China
1) Kira Watkins (2013-2014), One-year Exchange Student, Department of Chemical Engineering at University of California, Berkeley, USA