- Innovation Award in 2016 at Chinese University of Hong Kong
- Fellowship in 2011 at Northwestern University
Dr. Jonathan Choi is an Associate Professor and Vice-Chairman (Undergraduate) in the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) and an Associate Professor (by courtesy) in the School of Life Sciences at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). Born and raised in Hong Kong, Jonathan completed his secondary school studies at Wah Yan College Hong Kong, scoring 10 distinctions in the HKCEE in 2000. He received his BS/MS degrees from Stanford University in 2005/2006 and PhD degree from the California Institute of Technology in 2011, all in chemical engineering. He was a Croucher postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University from 2011 to 2013.
Jonathan's research interests are non-cationic bionanomaterials, bio-nano interactions, nanomedicine, and drug delivery. He established the first lab that focuses on in vivo nanoparticle-based drug delivery and bio-nano interactions in Hong Kong in 8/2013. He won a Croucher Innovation Award in 2016 (HKD 5M), the Best Paper from Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE) Materials Division in 2019, was conferred a 2023/24 Research Grants Council (RGC) Research Fellow (HKD 5.1M), made a finalist of the 2023 ACS Nano Impact Award (one winner and four finalists globally), and elected to the Hong Kong Young Academy of Sciences in 2024. He co-founded CUHK Department of BME (the first BME department in Hong Kong) in 7/2017 and was the Assistant Dean (Student Affairs) of Engineering at CUHK from 2018 to 2021. He is a Member-at-Large of American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Nanoscale Science & Engineering Forum and was Communications Chair of Controlled Release Society (CRS) Bioinspired and Biomimetic Delivery Focus Group. He is an editorial board member of Pharmaceutics and Frontiers of Bioengineering and Biotechnology and guest-edited a special issue for Molecular Pharmaceutics.
Currently
Dr Choi's research group investigates how non-cationic bionanomaterials interact with the living system, across the vast length scales of organs, tissues, cells, and organelles (Ho LWC et al., Acc. Chem. Res., 2019).
Advances in nanotechnology have empowered the design of bionanomaterials by assembling different types of natural biomolecules (e.g., nucleic acids, proteins, and lipids) as building blocks into nanoparticles of 1–100 nm in diameter. Such bionanomaterials form the basis of useful nanomedicine applications, such as targeted delivery, gene regulation, molecular diagnostics, and immunomodulation. To achieve optimal performance in these applications, it is imperative that the nanoparticle be delivered effectively to the organs, tissues, and cells of interest. A rational approach to facilitating the delivery of nanoparticles is to develop a detailed and comprehensive understanding in their fundamental interactions with the biological system (or nano–bio interactions). Rigorous nano–bio research can provide mechanistic insights for circumventing the bottlenecks associated with inefficient and nonspecific delivery of NPs, catalyzing the clinical translation of nanomedicines.
Results of his research will also yield design rules of nanoparticles for traversing biological barriers and targeting biological sites more effectively.