Principal Investigator
Professor Junling Guo (郭俊凌)
NSFC Excellent 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 an NSFC (National Natural Science Foundation of China) Excellent Professor at Sichuan University in China and a BPI Visiting Professor at The University of British Columbia (Canada). He is the Editorial Board Member of Chin. Chem. Lett., etc., and Outstanding Referee of Angew. Chem., Chem. Mater., Adv. Funct. Mater., Colloids Surf. B, etc. Prof. Guo initiated a series of pioneering research on polyphenol-based multifunctional materials, encompassing more than 120 peer-reviewed publications (with citation > 5000, H-index of 37), including Science, Nat. Nanotechnol, Nat. Commun., Sci. Adv., Energy Environ. Sci., Angew. Chem., Matter, Adv. Mater., etc. Prof. Guo explored the use of polyphenols on particle self-assembly for the generation of superstructures and inorganic-biological hybrids. Prof. Guo's works have been reported by more than 20 international scientific media, including F1000 (Exceptional), EurekAlert!, Harvard Gazette, ChemViews Magazine, Phy.org, IDI-Online, etc. He is also an entrepreneur who is the holder of numerous patents in the fields of biotechnology, environmental science, and healthcare, and founder of several companies.
Fundamental Studies:
Science 2018, 362, 813
Sci. Adv. 2021, 7, eabh348
Nat. Nanotechnol. 2016, 11, 1105
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2014, 53, 5546
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2019, 58, 9866
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2023, e20230346
Applications:
Matter 2023, 6, 260
Nat. Commun. 2022, 13, 2117
Energy Environ. Sci. 2019, 12, 607
Environ. Sci. Technol. 2023, acs.est.3c03827
Adv. Mater. 2020, 2003492
Adv. Mater. 2023, 202301531
Adv. Mater. 2013, 25, 2040
Adv. Funct. Mater. 2020, 1910566
Adv. Funct. Mater. 2021, 2103456
Adv. Funct. Mater. 2023, 2212856
Adv. Sci. 2019, 6, 1801688
Adv. Sci. 2023, 2207488
Adv. Healthcare Mater. 2023, 12, 2201578
Adv. Healthcare Mater. 2023, 12, 2201933
Adv. Healthcare Mater. 2015, 4, 1796
Adv. Healthcare Mater. 2015, 4, 2170
Adv. Mater. Technol. 2020, 2000240
Adv. Biosys. 2018, 1800241
InfoMat 2023, e20230074
Biomaterials 2020, 235, 119784
Biomaterials 2021, 276, 121026
Bioact. Mater. 2022, 16, 95
Bioact. Mater. 2022, 17, 526
J. Control. Release. 2023, 360, 433
Theranostics 2022, 12, 2028
Theranostics 2022, 12, 625
J. Hazard. Mater. 2022, 428, 128145
J. Hazard. Mater. 2022, 431, 128441
Invited Reviews:
Chem. Soc. Rev. 2022, 51, 4287
Bio-derived nanoparticles for advanced therapy
Appl. Phys. Rev. 2022, 9, 021301
Self-assembly of 1D micelles
ACS Biomater. Sci. Eng. 2019, 5, 557
Polyphenol-based biomaterials
Trends Food Sci. Technol. 2021, 116, 940
Microorganisms in fermented foods
Adv. Nanobiomed. Res. 2023
Phenolic-nanocoating on probiotics
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.