Education and Research Experience
- Apr 2024–Present: Specially Appointed Professor, School of Basic Medicine, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, USTC
- Dec 2023–Apr 2024: Specially Appointed Professor, Hefei National Research Center for Microscale Material Sciences, USTC
- Sep 2019–Nov 2023: Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) (Advisor: Prof. Michael Mitchell)
- Sep 2014–Jul 2019: Ph.D. Student, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University (Advisor: Prof. Jinghong Li)
- National Center for Nanoscience and Technology (Advisor: Prof. Xing-Jie Liang)
- Sep 2010–Jul 2014: Bachelor’s Degree, Capital Medical University
Research Focus
Our research lies at the intersection of biomaterials, drug delivery, and genetic, protein, and cellular engineering, aiming to gain fundamental insights and provide therapeutic solutions to biomedical challenges in clinical settings. Our focus spans various unmet clinical needs, including therapeutic resistance, recurrences, toxicities, side effects, among others. Ongoing research projects including the development of novel drug delivery platforms to overcome resistance in cancer immunotherapy, engineering nanoparticles to enhance drug delivery into deep-seated tumors, establishing nucleic acid delivery platforms for treating cancer, infectious diseases, and metabolic disorders, modifying immune cells using biomaterials for high-efficacy and low-toxicity adoptive cell transfer therapy, and exploring protein and peptide engineering strategies to ensure safer cancer immunotherapy.
Awards and Honors
- 2023: National Youth Talent Project
- 2022: Burroughs Young Investigator Award, Biomedical Engineering Society, USA
- 2021: First Prize in Natural Science, Beijing Municipal Government (Fourth Contributor)
- 2020: Jingbo Technology Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award, Chinese Chemical Society/Jingbo Technology Co., Ltd.
- 2019: CAS President's Special Award, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Selected Publications
Google scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=QcuL8SMAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
N. Gong#, W. Zhong#, M.-G.Alameh#, X. Han, L. Xue, R. El-Mayta, G. Zhao, A. E. Vaughan, Z. Qin, F. Xu, A. G. Hamilton, D. Kim, J. Xu, J. Kim, X. Teng, J. Li, X.-J. Liang, D. Weissman*, W. Guo*, M. J. Mitchell*. Tumour-derived small extracellular vesicles act as a barrier to therapeutic nanoparticle delivery, Nature Materials, 2024, DOI: 10.1038/s41563-024-01961-6.
N. Gong#, M.-G.Alameh#, R. El-Mayta, L. Xue, D. Weissman*, M. J. Mitchell* Enhancing in situ cancer vaccines using delivery technologies, Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, 2024, (8), 607-625
N. Gong, X. Han, L. Xue, M. M Billingsley, X. Huang, R. El-Mayta, J. Qin, N. C Sheppard, C. H June, M. J Mitchell*. Small-molecule-mediated control of the anti-tumour activity and off-tumour toxicity of a supramolecular bispecific T cell engager. Nature Biomedical Engineering, 2024, 8, 513–528
N. Gong#, X. Han#, L. Xue#, R. El-Mayta, A. E. Metzloff, M. M. Billingsley, A. G. Hamilton, M. J. Mitchell*. In situ PEGylation of CAR T cells alleviates cytokine release syndrome and neurotoxicity. Nature Materials, 2023: 1571–1580.
X. Li#, N. Gong#, *, F. Tian, S. Zhang, Y. Zhang, Y. Wang, G. Qing, Y. Wang, F. Li, Y. Xu, L. Zhang, J. Wang, Q. Ni, Y. Gan, C. Gu, H. Jiang, X. Huang, X. Shi, T. Zhang, Y. Wu*, X.-J. Liang*. Suppression of cytokine release syndrome during CAR-T-cell therapy via a subcutaneously injected interleukin-6-adsorbing hydrogel. Nature Biomedical Engineering, 2023: 1129–1141.
N. Gong, N. C. Sheppard, M. M. Billingsley, C. H. June, M. J. Mitchell*. Nanomaterials for T-cell cancer immunotherapy. Nature Nanotechnology, 2021, 16(1): 25-36.
N. Gong, Y. Zhang, X. Teng, Y. Wang, S. Huo, G. Qing, Q. Ni, X. Li, J. Wang, X. Ye, T. Zhang, S. Chen, Y. Wang, J. Yu, P. C. Wang, Y. Gan, J. Zhang, M. J. Mitchell, J. Li, X.-J. Liang*. Proton-driven transformable nanovaccine for cancer immunotherapy. Nature Nanotechnology, 2020, 15(12): 1053-1064.
N. Gong, X. Ma, X. Ye, Q. Zhou, X. Chen, X. Tan, S. Yao, S. Huo, T. Zhang, S. Chen, X. Teng, X. Hu, J. Yu, Y. Gan, H. Jiang, J. Li*, X.-J. Liang*, Carbon dot-supported atomically-dispersed gold as a mitochondrial oxidative stress amplifier for cancer treatment. Nature Nanotechnology. 2019, 14,379-387.
Recruitment
We warmly welcome students interested in biomaterials, tumor immunotherapy, and gene therapy to pursue master's or doctoral degrees or engage in short- or long-term exchanges. Postdoctoral researchers with backgrounds in pharmacy, oncology, chemistry, biology, or medicine are encouraged to join the lab. Interested candidates, please contact the group leader at gongn@ustc.edu.cn.
Contact Information
E-mail: gongn@ustc.edu.cn
Address: USTC west campus, Yisuan Building 130