Professor, Chair of Therapeutic Engineering
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Director of Industry Engagement of School of Engineering
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Institute for Bioengineering, School of Engineering
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King’s Buildings, Mayfield Road EH9 3JL, United Kingdom
Prof. Chen’s research is focused on biomaterials, biomedical engineering, biophysics, and the application of nanomaterials in biology and medicine. In these areas, he has been working on physical (microneedle & nanoneedle arrays) and chemical (nanomaterials) for drug delivery and sensing, as well as microfluidic devices for biomedical applications.
He has published >130 papers in peer-reviewed journals including Nature Communications, Advanced Materials, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Advanced Functional Materials, Small, Advanced Healthcare Materials, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Nano Letters, ACS Nano, Biomaterials, Journal of Controlled Release, Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews, and Chemical Society Reviews. These publications generated an h-index of 58 and >9000 citations. Additionally, he has 3 book chapters and 12 granted patents & 15 patent applications in drug delivery technologies in major countries and regions, mostly in the USA and Europe. His research output has attracted broad media coverage including TV, newspapers, internet websites, journal cover, and journal cover stories. He has been listed among the World’s Top 2% Scientists for Career Impact (1960-2023) in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024; and Single Year in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024; https://elsevier.digitalcommonsdata.com/datasets/btchxktzyw/7), as well as among the Best Materials Science Scientists in Research.com.
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His research has been supported by grants from MRC (nanomedicine), ESRC (sing-cell analysis), EPSRC (Phase 0 clinical trial tool development), industry (hydrogel, nanomedicine, antibacterial coatings), Cancer Research UK (biosensor), Royal Society (microfluidic nanomedicine synthesis), and Royal Society of Edinburgh (nanomedicine, biosensor), etc.
Examples of his contribution to technology include:
1. Microneedle transdermal delivery: Invented technology for coating vaccines on small and densely packed microneedles for efficient skin vaccination (22 patents and >20 journal papers); this technology contributed to the establishment of Vaxxas (https://www.vaxxas.com/about-vaxxas/);
2. Diamond nanoneedle arrays: Pioneered diamond nanoneedle arrays for high-throughput intracellular delivery (3 patents and >10 journal papers);
3. Programmable Optical Window Bonding: Invented this technology enabling high-resolution, transparent microfluidic device production through 3D printing.
For scientific community service, he serves as a reviewer for many fields' top journals such as Science Robotics, Nature Communications, Science Advances, Advanced Materials, Small, Advanced Healthcare Materials, Journal of the American Chemical Society, ACS Nano, Nano Letters, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Journal of Controlled Release, Biomaterials, Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews, and grant proposals from different research councils in the UK (e.g., EPSRC, BBSRC, MRC, CRUK, and Royal Society) and a number of other countries. He is also an associate editor of IET Nanobiotechnology and an editorial board member of Sensors, Bioengineering, and Journal of Functional Biomaterials.
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