TITLE: Biocompatible lanthanide materials for tumors targeting, imaging and inhibition
SPEAKER:Dr. Ka-Leung Wong，Department of Chemistry, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong
TIME: 14 May（Thursday），PM14:00
LOCATION: Five-floor Lecture Hall， Chemistry Building A (化学A楼演讲厅)
INVITER: Prof. Shun-ai Che
 

About the speaker：Dr. Ka-Leung Wong (Gary) has his research field which mainly focuses on lanthanide chemistry for spectroscopy studies and molecular imaging. He obtained his applied chemistry bachelor degree in City University of Hong Kong in 2002 (Project Supervisor – Prof. Peter A. Tanner) and completed a PhD degree with Professor Wing-Tak Wong in the University of Hong Kong in 2006, following two-year post-doctoral with Professor Michael Hon-Wah Lam in the City University of Hong Kong and one-year Royal Society Post-doctoral fellowship with Professor David Parker in Durham. In September 2009, he returned to Hong Kong and joined the department of chemistry in Hong Kong Baptist University as a faculty member. He has published over 70 original research papers in peer-reviewed international scientific journals (include PNAS, J. Am. Chem. Soc., Angew. Chemie. Int. Ed., Adv. Mater., Chem. Commun) with over 1800 citations and an h-index of 27. He has been invited to give more than 15 lectures globally in France, Poland, China, Spain and Singapore. Recently, he was obtained the 2015 ERES Junior award by the European Rare Earth and Actinide Society for his work on multi-functional metal-based luminescent bioprobes.

One of the major limitations of the existing anticancer agents is their differentiation of cancer cells and normal cells. Recently, some studies in the literature have suggested that some overexpressed cancer cell cycle regulating proteins (e.g. Cyclin(s), Plk1 and EBNA1) can be the particular cancer targets. Several small molecules as their inhibitors have been reported; however, those reported inhibitors are not emissive and cannot directly evaluate their effectiveness, such as real time imaging, biodistribution and pharmacokinetic studies. Over the recent two decades, luminescent lanthanide materials have shown extensive applications in the detection of various bioactive molecules and for in vitro/in vivo imaging, addressing the problem of autofluorescence. For this reason, one of our driving forces for synthesizing new lanthanide materials for imaging these cell cycle regulated protein relates to their unique photophysical properties, such as long emission lifetimes (effective elimination of biological auto-fluorescence in time-resolved spectroscopy) and characteristic hypersensitive emissions, (providing real-time information about the effect on coordination environment by surrounding entities, especially with europium) which are attractive substitutes to the more commonly used organic fluorophores.

In this seminar, in the first half, I would like to share our development recently on emissive lanthanide materials as dual bioprobes for in vitro/in vivo imaging and inhibition of overexpressed tumor regulator proteins, such as Cyclin(s), Plk1 and EBNA1. It is hoped that the success in research could also lead to the success in practice, thereby providing more powerful tools to get more complete pictures of the roles of Cyclin(s)/Plk1/EBAN1.

In the second half, a new gadolinium complex (Gd-N) as a tumor-specific photodynamic therapy (PDT) agent will be discussed. Gd-N has great potential of serving as an anti-cancer torpedo boat which is equipped with visible-to-NIR emission for tumor imaging, discriminating radar for tumor targeting, and powerful 1O2 torpedo generation for tumor killing. This new gadolinium complex here can be promising and applicable for the development of long-term live cancer cell tracking and imaging, as well as modern practical PDT.

References:

Zhang T.; Lan, R.; Chan, CF.; Law, GL.; Wong, WK.; Wong, KL. PNAS, 2014, 111, E5492.
Chan, CF.; Lan, RF.; Tsang, MK.; Zhou, D.; Lear, S.; Chan, WL.; Cobb, SL.; Wong, WK.; Hao, J.; Wong, WT.; Wong, KL. J. Mater. Chem. B, 2015, 3, 2624.
Jiang, L.; Lau, LL.; Li, H.; Chan, CF.; Lan RF.; Chan, WL.; Lau TCK.; Tsao GSW.; Mak, NK.; Wong, KL. Chem. Commun., 2014, 50, 6517.
Chan, CF.; Tsang, MK.; Li, H.; Lan, RF.; Chadbourne, FL.; Chan, WL.; Law, GL.; Cobb, SL.; Hao, J.; Wong, WT.; Wong, KL. J. Mater. Chem. B, 2014, 2, 84.
Li, H.; Chan, CF.; Chan, WL.; Lear, S.; Cobb, SL.; Mak, NK.; Lau, TCK.; Lan, RF.; Wong, WK.; Wong, KL. Org. Bio. Chem., 2014, 12, 5879.
Li, H.; Chadbourne, FL.; Lan, RF.; Chan, CF.; Chan, WL.; Law, GL.; Lee, CS.; Cobb, SL.; Wong, KL. Dalton Trans., 2013, 42, 13495.
Kong, HK.; Chadbourne, FL.; Law, GL.; Li, H.; Ko, CYT.; Tam, HL.; Cobb, SL.; Lau, CK.; Lee, CS.; Wong, KL. Chem. Commun., 2011, 47, 8052.
Zhang, T.; Zhu, X.; Kwok, WM.; Chan, CTL.; Tam, HL.; Wong, WK.; Wong, KL. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2011, 50, 20120.