C. H. Jonathan Choi

  • Innovation Award in 2016 at Chinese University of Hong Kong
  • Fellowship in 2011 at Northwestern University

Dr. Choi is the Assistant Dean (Student Affairs) of the Faculty of Engineering and an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and School of Life Sciences (by courtesy) at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). Born and raised in Hong Kong, he completed his secondary school studies at Wah Yan College Hong Kong, scoring 10 distinctions in the HKCEE in 2000. He obtained his B.S. and M.S. degrees in chemical engineering from Stanford University in 2005 and 2006, respectively. In 2011, he received his Ph.D. degree in chemical engineering from the California Institute of Technology. From 2011 to 2013, he served as a Croucher Foundation postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University. He served as a Globex Faculty Fellow at Peking University in 2014, and received the Dean’s Exemplary Teaching Award from the CUHK Faculty of Engineering in 2017. 

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.