Yun Liu

Yun Liu

School of Chemical Engineering

Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Technology

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.


Dr Yun Liu, a DECRA Fellow (2023-2025) at the School of Chemical Engineering, University of Adelaide (UoA), is a rising star in the biomedical engineering and drug delivery sectors. She completed her PhD at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) at the University of Queensland (UQ) in April 2020 under the supervision of Prof. Chun-Xia Zhao (NHMRC Leadership Fellow) and Prof. Anton Middelberg (Former Federation Fellow, Queensland’s Smart Futures Premier’s Fellow). Her impressive career has been marked by groundbreaking advancements in the development of multifunctional nanomaterials with customizable drug loading and regulated release capabilities. One of Dr. Liu's significant achievements is the co-invention of a unique sequential nanoprecipitation technology. This innovative method, for crafting drug-core polymer-shell nanoparticles (NPs), is patented and has been licensed to a company. Inspired by this, Dr. Liu co-invented another breakthrough technology, a simple yet efficient salt-induced nanoprecipitation platform. This platform creates NPs with an extraordinarily high drug loading capacity of up to 66.5%, using salt-induced liquid-liquid phase separation and nanoprecipitation. Dr. Liu has also pioneered a microfluidic technique to produce extensive libraries of nanomaterials with systematically varied properties. Moreover, she has utilized microfluidic tumour-on-a-chip models to assess nanoparticles for their viability in drug delivery applications. She has published 35 papers—including 14 as first or corresponding author—in prestigious journals such as PNAS, Angewandte Chemie, etc. Her work has attracted over 2,100 citations (H-index 23). Dr Liu is the key inventor on three patents (one licensed) and currently leads a research team at the School of Chemical Engineering, supervising six PhD students working in the drug delivery field in Prof. Chun-Xia Zhao’s group at the UofA.

Australia Research Council - Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (ARC DECRA): Bio-inspired nanomaterials with tunable drug loading and controlled release – Develop new nanotechnology strategies for advanced manufacturing. 2023-2025. Funding awarded: $444,318

2024 Small Equipment Grant: AUD 15,000 for the purchase of “Upgrading from the Invitrogen iBright CL1500 Imaging System to the advanced iBright FL1500 Imaging System (ThermoFisher)”

2023 Australian Synchrotron Grant: AUD 32,784. Project Title: Probing Biointeractions within Core-Shell Nanoparticles between Nanocarriers and Encapsulated Drugs while Exploring the Drug Loading Effects on Nanostructured Carrier Morphology for Enhanced Anticancer Therapy 

2024 Teacher 4420_BIOPRENG_7109, Advanced Engineering of Biomaterials
2024 Teaching Assistant 4420_CHEM_ENG_4054, Research Project
2022 Teacher 4220_CHEM_ENG_7062, Downstream Bioprocessing
  • Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2024 Co-Supervisor Development of anti-swelling hydrogels for next-generation soft electronics Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Geng Yang
    2023 Co-Supervisor Development of bio-inspired cell membrane-coated (BCM) lipid nanoparticles (NPs) Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Moataz Badawy Ali Saper Zewail
    2023 Principal Supervisor Development of chemo-immuno nanomedicines for targeted oral drug delivery Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Yilong Fan
    2022 Co-Supervisor Nanoparticle-based combination therapy for triple-negative breast cancer treatment Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Song Jin
    2021 Co-Supervisor Development of novel lipid nanoparticles for mRNA delivery Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Xing Wang

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