Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute for NanoBioTechnology

Yizong received his B.E. in Polymer Materials and Engineering from Tsinghua University in China in 2016, and Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University in 2022.  He continues his research in non-viral gene delivery and transfection through design of polymer carriers, kinetic assembly, understanding of structure-property-function relationship of nanoparticle carriers, and process engineering of nanoparticle synthesis and assembly.  He is strongly interested in translating nanomedicine to the clinic. 

Selected Publications:

• Li S*, Hu Y*, Li A, Lin J, Hsieh K, Schneiderman Z, Zhang P, Zhu Y, Qiu C, Kokkoli E, Wang TH, Mao HQ. Payload distribution and capacity of mRNA lipid nanoparticles. Nat Commun. 2022 Sep; 13(1): 5561. PMID: 36151112.
• Zhu Y, Shen R, Vuong I, Reynolds RA, Shears MJ, Yao ZC, Hu Y, Cho WJ, Kong J, Reddy SK, Murphy SC, Mao HQ. Multi-step screening of DNA/lipid nanoparticles and co-delivery with siRNA to enhance and prolong gene expression. Nat Commun. 2022 Jul; 13(1): 4282. PMID: 35879315.
• Li L, Zhang Y, Zhou Y, Hu H, Hu Y, Georgiades C, Mao HQ, Selaru FM. Quaternary nanoparticles enable sustained release of bortezomib for hepatocellular carcinoma. Hepatology. 2022 May. PMID: 35596926.
• Hu Y, Zhu Y, Sutherland ND, Wilson DR, Pang M, Liu E, Staub JR, Berlinicke CA, Zack DJ, Green JJ, Reddy SK, Mao HQ. Size-controlled and shelf-stable DNA particles for production of lentiviral vectors. Nano Lett. 2021 Jul; 21(13): 5697–5705. PMID: 34228937.  
• Ahn HH, Carrington C, Hu Y, Liu HW, Ng C, Nam H, Park A, Stace C, West W, Mao HQ, Pomper MG, Ullman CG, Minn I. Nanoparticle-mediated tumor cell expression of mIL-12 via systemic gene delivery treats syngeneic models of murine lung cancers. Sci Rep. 2021 May; 11(1): 9733. PMID: 33958660. 
• Hu Y, He Z, Hao Y, Gong L, Pang M, Howard GP, Ahn HH, Brummet M, Chen K, Liu HW, Ke X, Zhu J, Anderson CF, Cui H, Ullman CG, Carrington CA, Pomper MG, Seo JH, Mittal R, Minn I, Mao HQ. Kinetic control in assembly of plasmid DNA/polycation complex nanoparticles. ACS Nano. 2019 Sep; 13(9): 10161–10178. PMID: 31503450. 
• He Z, Nie T, Hu Y, Zhou Y, Zhu J, Liu Z, Liu L, Leong KW, Chen Y, Mao HQ. A polyphenol-metal nanoparticle platform for tunable release of liraglutide to improve blood glycemic control and reduce cardiovascular complications in a mouse model of type II diabetes. J Control Release. 2020 Feb; 318: 86–97. PMID: 31838207.