Lidong Qin, PhD

Dr. Qin received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois and completed a postdoctoral traineeship in Cancer Nanotechnology at the California Institute of Technology. In Prof. Chad Mirkin's lab at the Northwestern University, Dr. Qin worked on functional metallic nanorods, with the invention of on-wire lithography and the development of Raman spectrum-based imaging and sensing methods. His research provided insightful understanding of Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy and Surface Plasmon Resonance, which are the basics of Raman-based cancer imaging and nanomaterial-based cancer thermal therapeutics. Because of his pioneering work in metal nanomaterial synthesis and biological applications, he was awarded the International Precious Metal Institute (IPMI) graduate student prize. His other awards include the Materials Research Society graduate student award, Chinese government award for graduate students studying abroad, and Searle center for teaching excellence award. During his four years at Northwestern University, Dr. Qin received eight patents and published fourteen peer-reviewed journal articles, in journals including Science, PNAS, JACS and Nano Letters.

Later, Dr. Qin moved to Caltech as a postdoctoral fellow, working with Prof. James Heath. He developed automatic proteomic barcode chips that allow highly multiplexed plasma cancer biomarker measurements from a finger-prick of blood. Dr. Qin's method is recognized as a significant improvement over the cost and speed of standard laboratory tests to analyze proteins in blood. In his three-year postdoctoral research position, he also worked on integrated microfluidic chips to handle prostate cancer cell culture and study proteomic profiles from individual cells. He continued to excel and make major contributions to his field, receiving another patent and publishing three peer-reviewed papers in Nature Nanotechnology, Lab on a Chip and Nature Biotechnology.

Dr. Qin joined the TMHRI Department of Nanomedicine in July 2010 and was awarded with a prestigious startup award, the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) recruitment award for first-time, tenure-track faculty.

Translational cancer medicine is the focus of my research group. In particular, we develop nonconventional technology platforms for cancer diagnosis and risk analysis, measurement of cancer cell mechanical properties and phenotype enrichment, and in vitro models for study of the cancer cell microenvironment. Our technological expertise includes rational design of microfluidics platforms that allows for rapid and high-throughput molecular and cellular assays, fabrication of bio-inspired microstructures that simulate the cancer cell microenvironment, and development of nanotools that assist molecular signal amplification. Our biological targets address the cancer metastatic cascade, with focuses on cancer cell phenotype transition in the primary tumor, detection of circulating biomarkers and circulating tumor cells in the blood, and cancer cell migration and invasion at the metastatic site. The combination of our technological strengths and understanding of cancer cell biology has helped us develop several interesting technological innovations and opened many new avenues of future research direction.