About
Dr Chengchen Zhang is currently a Lecturer (aka Assistant Professor, 2023/09-x) in the Digital Health & Biomedical Engineering Group (DHBE), which is a part of the School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) at the University of Southampton, UK. Before joining Southampton, Dr Zhang finished her PhD study (05/2019-12/2022, Supervisor: Prof. Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh) and the Postdoc training (11/2022-07/2023, Supervisor: Prof. Ewa Goldys), at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia. Dr Zhang has published over 20 peer-reviewed articles in journals including ACS Nano, Advanced Functional Materials, Small, Chemistry of Materials, ACS Applied Materials Interfaces, and Applied Materials Today. Her works have been cited >700 times (h index = 16, based on the source of Google Scholar.)
Dr Zhang's research group aims to tackle the challenges in therapeutics and health monitoring with the following focus areas:
- Understanding nano-bio interactions for precise controlled therapy (e.g., anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer treatments), bioinspired engineering (e.g., enzyme mimics), and biosafety assessment (e.g., medical and environmental impacts).
- Creating smart sensing platforms for highly sensitive detection in rapid disease diagnosis and health monitoring, leveraging the distinctive properties of advanced materials and the power of artificial intelligence.
Research Grants
- 2024/10-2025/12 Industrial Collaborative Research Grant, Chengdu RunWu Precision Instrument Equipment Co., Ltd, China. Lead PI
- 2024/06-2024/07 ECS Pump Priming Fund 2024, University of Southampton, UK. Lead PI
- 2024/03-2026/03 International Exchanges 2023 (IEC\NSFC\233339). The Royal Society, UK. Lead PI
- 2024/03-2025/09 Royal Society Research Grant (RG\R1\241228). The Royal Society, UK. Lead PI
- 2023/09-2025/08 Start-up and Seed Fundings, University of Southampton, UK. Lead PI
- 2023/08 Awarded the Newton International Fellowship (NIF\R1\231027). The Royal Society, UK. (Declined due to taking the Lecturer Position at the University of Southampton)
- 2022/02 Awarded the Development and Research Training Grant (DTRG), University of New South Wales, Australia
Editorial and Review Activities
- Associate Editor of Health Nanotechnology (2024/02-present)
- Guest Editor of RSC Materials Advances for the theme collection “Material and device design for healthcare monitoring and therapeutics.” (2023/09-present)
- Review Editor of Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology on “Biomaterials” (2023/07-present)
- Guest Editor of Biosensors for the special issue on “Enzyme-assisted Point-of-Care Testing (POCT) for the ultra-sensitive diagnosis” (2023/02-2023/09)
- Review Editor of Frontiers in Medical Technology on “Diagnostic and Therapeutic Devices” (2022/11-present)
- Regular Reviewer for International Journals: ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Research, Journal of Nanobiotechnology, Scientific Reports, Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, Biosensors, etc.
Talks & Media Highlights
- 2024/06 14th International NanoMedicine Conference, Sydney, Australia (Invited Speaker)
- 2023/11 BRC Science Forum, NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre, Southampton, UK (Invited Speaker)
- 2023/07 45th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (IEEE-EMBC 2023), Sydney, Australia (Invited Speaker)
- 2023/06 13th International NanoMedicine Conference, Sydney, Australia(Oral Speaker, Best Oral Presentation Award)
- 2022/12 Centre for Nanoscale BioPhotonics (CNBP)/Biofocus Seminar, GSBmE, UNSW, Sydney, Australia (Invited Speaker)
- 2022/11 NanoWerk: Dense nanoparticles slow down cells' movements.
- 2022/07 2022 RACI National Congress, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia (Poster Speaker)
- 2022/05 2022 MRS Spring Meeting, Hawai’i, Honolulu, USA (Poster Speaker; Best Poster Award)
Organized Academic Conferences
- 2023/01-2023/07 Publicity Committee Member, 45th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (IEEE-EMBC 2023, July 24-28, 2023, Sydney, Australia)
- 2019/01−2019/05 Conference Co-Chief Secretary, The 13th IEEE-EMBS International Summer School and Symposium on Medical Devices and Biosensors & The 11th International School and Symposium on Biomedical and Health Engineering (MDBS-BHE 2019, Sep 28-29. 2019, Chengdu, China)
- 2017/10−2018/06 Conference Chief Secretary, 2018 International Conference of Biomedical Information Perception & Microsystems (ICBIPM2018, June 13-15, 2018, Chengdu, China)
Members of Research Societies
- NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre (Southampton, UK) (2023/09-present)
- Institute for Life Sciences (University of Southampton, UK) (2023/09-present)
- Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE, USA) (2022/11-present)
- IEEE in Medicine and Biology Society (IEEE EMBS, USA) (2022/11-present)
- IEEE Women in Engineering (IEEE WIE, USA) (2022/11-present)
- IEEE Young Professionals (IEEE YP, USA) (2022/11-present)
- IEEE Sensors Council, USA (2022/11-present)
- IEEE Nanotechnology Council, USA (2022/11-present)
- Materials Research Society (MRS, USA) (2022/07-2023/06)
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale Biophotonics (CNBP, Australia) (2022/06-2023/07)
- Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI, Australia) (2021/02-2022/05)
- Australian Centre for NanoMedicine (ACN, Australia) (2019/05-2023/07)