ChemBio & Inorganic Seminar - Jie Zheng
May
4
2026
Description
The ChemBio and Inorganic Seminar Series presents: Jie Zheng
UT Dallas
Host: Yi Lu
Title: Renal Clearable Gold Nanoparticles: Fundamentals and Biomedical Implications
Location: WEL 2.122
Refreshments served at 3:15pm
Renal-clearable gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) represent a distinct class of nanomaterials engineered for efficient and exclusive elimination through the kidneys (Nature Reviews Materials, 2018). Their rapid clearance is enabled by their ultrasmall hydrodynamic dimensions (<3nm) in circulation, which allow them to traverse the glomerular filtration barrier (6-8nm) and achieve near-complete urinary excretion following intravenous administration. Beyond their favorable pharmacokinetics and safety profile, these AuNPs are intrinsically fluorescent and highly electron-dense (Annual Review of Physical Chemistry, 2007), enabling multimodal imaging of renal transport processes across fluorescence, electron, and bright-field microscopies. In this talk, I will discuss how renal-clearable AuNPs serve as discovery tools that reveal previously unrecognized physiological principles at the nanoscale, including size- (Nature Nanotechnology, 2017) and charge-dependent renal clearance of engineered nanoparticles (PNAS, 2024) and membrane-extrusion–mediated organelle elimination and regeneration in healthy kidneys (Nature Nanotech, 2023). In disease states, these nanoparticles uncover characteristic disruptions in renal handling such as reduced glomerular filtration, prolonged tubular retention, and diminished cellular uptake providing sensitive responses of dysfunction that precede conventional clinical markers(Advanced Materials, 2024). Leveraging these mechanistic insights, we are translating renal-clearable AuNPs into clinical applications as first-in-class contrast agents for imaging-guided cancer surgery (Nature Nanotech, 2019), sensitive blood and urinary biomarkers for early kidney injury detection (Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2015, 2025) and precision delivery vehicles that enhance therapeutic specificity while minimizing off-target toxicity (Journal of Controlled Release, 2020). Together, this renal-clearable nanotechnology serves as a powerful bridge between nanoscale physiology and clinical practice, enabling earlier diagnosis, real-time monitoring, and safer, more effective treatment of kidney disease and cancer (Nature Reviews Nephrology, 2024).