时间：2014年11月21日（星期五）上午10：00
地点：北区科技园国重大楼五楼502会议室

报告摘要：
       A full understanding of the molecular basis of diseases depends on the development of molecular probes able to recognize disease targets of interest. Until very recently, such tools have been absent from the clinical practice of medicine. The newest molecular probe, and one that holds most promise, is a new class of designer nucleic acids, termed aptamers, which are single-stranded DNA/RNA able to recognize specific targets, such as single proteins and even small molecules. Recently, we applied a simple, fast and reproducible cell-based aptamer selection strategy called Cell-SELEX which uses whole, intact cells as the target for aptamer selection. This selection process then generates multiple aptamers for the specific recognition of biological cells, but without the need for prior knowledge about the signature of target cell-surface molecules. The selected aptamers have dissociation constants in the nanomolar to picomolar range. Thus far, we have selected aptamer probes for many different diseases, and used them to carry out studies at the vanguard of biomedical science, including ultrasensitive detection of tumors, molecular imaging, targeted drug delivery, and, most critically, cancer biomarker discovery. Taken together, these molecular level tools form a solid scientific platform from which to pursue advanced studies in molecular medicine. We will report our most recent progress in this exciting research area, especially in molecular engineering and molecular elucidation of cancer biomarkers and theranostics.

附：报告人简介
       Professor Weihong Tan received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1993. He is currently a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering and the Director of the State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, Hunan University. He is also a V. T and Louis Jackson Professor and a Distinguished Professor at University of Florida. Tan’s group has developed research programs in chemical biology, bionanotechnology, bioanalysis and biomedical engineering. Currently, the Tan group is working on a variety of nucleic acid probes for biomedical studies and developing new nanomaterials and bionanotechnologies for bioanalysis, molecular imaging and drug delivery. Most importantly, the Tan group has pushed forward a coordinated effort to elucidate the molecular foundation of such intractable diseases as cancer by using a chemical biology approach. His work has been recognized by such prestigious organizations as Pittcon and the American Chemical Society. Tan has published extensively in the field of chemical biology, molecular engineering, bioanalytical chemistry and bionanotechnology, accumulating more than410 papers to his credit with an H-index of 87 and more than 22,500 citations. He is one of the 198 people world-wide selected as Highly Cited Researchers (The world’s Most Influential Scientific Minds 2014). He is currently the Associate Editor for ACS Analytical Chemistry.