Zhaoqing Cong, PhD - Research Focus

Research Overview

Dr. Cong’s research is centered on pioneering nanoscale and molecular-level drug delivery platforms for cancer. He has significant expertise in drug delivery, clinical pharmacology, biomaterials, immunotherapy, and nanomedicine.

Dr. Cong’s research focuses on two key areas. The first is peptide-based drug delivery systems, which encompass non-genetic cellular modification, in situ cellular engineering of tumor tissues, and AI-powered personalized peptide drug conjugates for neoantigen-based immunotherapy. The second area involves micro/nano-robotic medical systems for diverse diseases therapy. This novel microrobotic platform, which includes cell microrobots, herb medicine microrobots, and hydrogel microrobots, has demonstrated strong anti-tumor efficacy in bladder cancer models (MB49, T24, UMUC3, 5637, and PDX orthotopic bladder cancer), kidney tumor, as well as thrombus.

Micro/Nano-robotic Medical Systems

A robotic medical platform using cell robots as "Trojan horses" for oncolytic adenovirus (OA) delivery, capable of bladder cancer targeting and killing.

We developed two innovative microrobot platforms that leverage bioengineered outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) for fuel-free, magnetically steerable propulsion. These platforms are designed to precisely target thrombi, showing remarkable efficacy in the treatment of venous thromboembolism and cerebral venous sinus thrombosis.

Upon magnetic manipulation, cell robots demonstrated the ability to navigate confined spaces and migrate from the bladder to the renal area through the ureter within an excised rabbit urinary system. Such capabilities hold immense promise for overcoming inherent biological barriers and achieving efficient, minimally invasive, and less toxic drug delivery to difficult-to-reach sites within the body.

Microrobot made from Spora Lygodii, a traditional Chinese medicine component, for bladder cancer therapy. These microrobot, guided by a magnetic field, delivered chemotherapy directly to tumors in mice, proving to be more effective than other treatments.

Peptide-Based Drug Delivery Systems

This study developed an intracellular size-transformable nanosystem for enhanced cancer therapy. Small, positively charged peptide nanoparticles (<30 nm) were coated with HA and folic acid, forming larger (~130 nm), negatively charged nanoparticles. This design improved drug circulation and prevented leakage. Upon tumor accumulation, the nanoparticles underwent HA/folate-mediated uptake and intracellular size transformation, boosting tumor penetration and drug release. Incorporating an ICG derivative enabled photoacoustic imaging, NIR-induced drug release, and synergistic chemo-phototherapy, achieving a 50% complete cure rate in melanoma models. This multi-modal nanosystem shows great potential for improving anticancer efficacy.

We developed transformable peptides with doxorubicin prodrug that self-assemble into micelles under aqueous conditions, but, on specific binding to receptor on cancer cells, transform into nanofibrils that could have long-term retention, low side effect and eventually much better anti-tumor efficacy. The in situ programmable fibrillary transformation peptide nanoparticle that show superior over traditional nano drug delivery method, thus could further be applied into the therapy against bladder cancer.

To address challenges in translational nanomedicine, we functionalized PVA amphiphilic polymer with catechol to create PVA-porphyrin-catechol-based nanoparticles (PPCN). Boronate-containing drugs like BTZ, or drugs/ligands functionalized with boronic acid, can be covalently loaded onto the nanocarrier's catechol moieties at a predefined ratio simply by mixing. The resulting nanoformulation, combining BTZ and DEX, demonstrated high efficacy against myeloma in both subcutaneous and orthotopic human IgA myeloma xenograft models (H929 and MM.1S respectively).

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