Prof. Junling Guo | BMI Center - Sichuan University

Principal Investigator

Professor Junling Guo (郭俊凌)

Principle Deputy Director
National Ministry of Education (MOE) Key Laboratory of Biomass Chemistry and Engineering

National Distinguished Professor
College of Biomass Science and Engineering
Sichuan University, Chengdu, China

BPI Visiting Professor
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering (CHBE)
The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

Education and Experience

Prof. Guo received his Ph.D. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at The University of Melbourne, Australia. He initialed the pioneering research on polyphenol-based engineering of particle and thin-film systems, including metal-phenolic network (MPN) and polyphenol-based modular assembly method.

Advisor: Prof. Frank Caruso (Fellows of the Royal Society, Fellow of Australian Academy of Science, Fellow of Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Convergent Bio-Nano Science and Technology, CSIRO Eureka Prize for Leadership).

Prof. Guo conducted research and lecturing as Wyss Fellow in the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, United States. High-impact works have been focused on phenolic-mediated nanoengineering of microbial and mammalian cells.

Advisors: Prof. Samir Mitragotri (Member of the National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Medicine, and National Academy of Inventors, Hiller Professor of Bioengineering and Hansjorg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering Core Faculty Member, Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering). Prof. Neel Joshi (Associate Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Hansjorg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering Core Faculty Member)

Research Areas

Junling Guo is Principle Deputy Director of the National Ministry of Education (MOE) Key Laboratory of Biomass Chemistry and Engineering, Chair Professor at Sichuan University, and BPI Visiting Professor at The University of British Columbia in Canada. He is also the Deputy Director of the Special Committee of Western Returned Scholars Association of China (WRSA) in Chengdu. Prof. Guo obtained his PhD in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at The University of Melbourne (Prof. Frank Caruso FRS) and conducted his postdoctoral research as Wyss Fellow in Harvard University (Prof. Samir Mitragotri, Prof. Neel Joshi). Prof. Guo serves as Deputy Editor-in-Chief and Director of the International Advisory Board for Collagen & Leather, a Springer Nature journal (Impact Factor 9.3, CiteScore 10.2) focused on collagen science, biomass chemistry, leather technology, and sustainable biomanufacturing since 1921. Prof. Guo is the Principle Investigator of National Natural Science Foundation Projects, etc. A recognized world leader in polyphenol-based nanotechnology, Dr. Guo is the author or co-author on 250+ peer-reviewed publications (across Science, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Communications, Science Advances, Angewandte, Matter, etc.), with a citation count >11,000 and an H-index of ~54. He is a serial entrepreneur and inventor with extensive patent holdings in biotechnology, environmental technology, and healthcare, and has co-founded ventures across the U.S., Switzerland, Hong Kong, and mainland China. His works have been reported by more than 30 international media, including F1000 (Exceptional), EurekAlert!, Harvard Gazette, ChemViews Magazine, Phy.org, IDI-Online, etc.

Fundamental Studies

Nat. Nanotechnol. 2016, 11, 1105
Sci. Adv. 2021, 7, eabh348
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2014, 53, 5546
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2019, 58, 9866
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2023, e20230346
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2025,e202511218
Chem. Mater. 2023, 3c02449

Cellular-Based Biohybrids

Science 2018, 362, 813
Nat. Commun. 2022, 13, 2117
Adv. Mater. 2020, 2003492
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2024, e202314501
Adv. Sci. 2023, 2207488

Nanostructured Particle Systems

ACS Nano 2023, 17, 24, 25136
Adv. Funct. Mater. 2020, 1910566
Adv. Funct. Mater. 2021, 2103456
Adv. Sci. 2019, 6, 1801688
Adv. Healthcare Mater. 2023, 12, 2201578
Adv. Healthcare Mater. 2023, 12, 2201933
Adv. Healthcare Mater. 2015, 4, 1796
Adv. Healthcare Mater. 2015, 4, 2170
Bioact. Mater. 2022, 16, 95
Bioact. Mater. 2022, 17, 526
Adv. Biosys. 2018, 1800241
Theranostics 2022, 12, 2028
Theranostics 2022, 12, 625

Interfacial-Mediated Nanoengineering

Cell Biomaterials 2025, 1, 100019
Matter 2023, 6, 260
Matter 2025, 8, 102043
Adv. Mater. 2013, 25, 2040
Adv. Mater. 2023, 202301531
Energy Environ. Sci. 2019, 12, 607
Adv. Funct. Mater. 2023, 2212856
Environ. Sci. Technol. 2023, acs.est.3c03827
Adv. Mater. Technol. 2020, 2000240
Biomaterials 2020, 235, 119784
Biomaterials 2021, 276, 121026
InfoMat 2023, e20230074
J. Control. Release. 2023, 360, 433
J. Hazard. Mater. 2022, 428, 128145
J. Hazard. Mater. 2022, 431, 128441

Invited Reviews

Chem. Soc. Rev. 2022
Bio-derived nanoparticles for advanced therapy

Appl. Phys. Rev. 2022
Self-assembly of 1D micelles

Innov. Mater. 2024
Plant bark biomass and material perspective

ACS Biomater. Sci. Eng. 2019
Polyphenol-based biomaterials

Trends Food Sci. Technol. 2021
Microorganisms in fermented foods

Adv. Nanobiomed. Res. 2023
Phenolic-nanocoating on probiotics

EES. Catal. 2024
Biomass-derived single-atom catalysts

WHAT WE DO

Our mission: use bio-building blocks to create materials

Natural polyphenols, these plant-derived natural products, were traditionally referred to as vegetable tannins, due to their original use in the industrial process of tanning to convert animal hide into leather. The possibility to exploring the unique physicochemical and biological properties of polyphenols can serve as an important source of inspiration in the search for new and improved materials. A library of functional metal-phenolic network (MPN) nanostructured films and capsules were reported which is based on the coordination between a phenolic ligand and a range of metal ions. Furthermore, the polyphenol-based particle functionalization was discovered by Prof. Guo to facilitate an interfacial molecular interaction-induced self-assembly process. This allowed for the generation of a highly versatile and effective methodology to prepare a large variety of superstructures assembled from a wide range of building blocks. This method displayed significant versatilities of sizes, shapes, microstructures, and compositions as building blocks. The generic nature of this method led to a large family of modularly assembled superstructures including core-satellite, hollow, hierarchically organized supraparticles, and inorganic-biological hybrids. In functional aspects, the polyphenol-based materials were tailored for biosynthesis, seawater uranium extraction, advanced drug delivery, positron emission tomography (PET), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), catalysis, electromagnetic (EM) applications, etc.