Juewen Liu

Juewen Liu
Professor
Location: QNC 5604
Phone: 519-888-4567 x38919

Biography

Professor Liu's research group applies the fundamental principles of chemistry, physics, and biology to produce nanoscale materials, devices, and systems to understand basic sciences, advance technology, and impact medicine.

In particular, they are interested in using DNA and lipids as functional polymers and building blocks to interface with metal nanoparticles, nanoclusters, carbon-based materials and hydrogels. Liu and his group employ a wide range of synthetic, analytical, physical and biochemical techniques.

They are currently interested in the following research topics:

1. Aptamers, catalytic DNA, biointerface chemistry and nanotechnology
2. Targeted drug delivery and nanomedicine
3. Bioinorganic / Bioanalytical chemistry

Research Interests

  • Nanotechnology - the development and study of materials and devices on the nanoscale (1/millionth of one millimetre)
  • Aptamer selection and characterization
  • Fundamental science behind DNA and lipids as functional polymers with the ability to self-assemble and interact with metals
  • Bioinorganic and bioanalytical chemistry
  • Contamination & Remediation: Water, Soil, Air
  • Drug Delivery
  • Bionanotechnolgy and Biosensors
  • Soft Matter
  • Devices and Analytical Methods
  • Nanomaterials
  • Legacies of Agriculture Pollutants

Education

  • 2005 Doctorate Chemistry, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA
  • 2000 Bachelor of Science (BSc) Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, China

Awards

  • 2022 Highly Cited Researchers™ list, Clarivate Analytics
  • 2019 Member of The College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists, Royal Society of Canada (RSC)
  • 2018 W.A.E. McBryde Medal, Canadian Society for Chemistry (CSC)
  • 2017 University Research Chair, University of Waterloo
  • 2015 Outstanding Performance Award, Faculty of Science, University of Waterloo
  • 2015 Voted most influential paper of the 2000s, Langmuir (2015 Surface Science of DNA Adsorption onto Citrate-Capped Gold Nanoparticles; Xu Zhang, Mark R. Servos, and Juewen Liu; DOI: 10.1021/la205036p.)
  • 2014 Fred Beamish Award, Canadian Society for Chemistry (CSC)
  • 2011 Ontario Early Researcher Award, Province of Ontario
  • 2004 T. S. Piper Award (for the best thesis in inorganic chemistry), University of Illinois
  • 2003 Ullyot Fellowship, University of Illinois
  • 2002 Department of Chemistry Fellowship, University of Illinois
  • 2002 Biosensors & Bioelectronics Award Runner-up, University of Illinois

Service

  • Memberships in University of Waterloo centres and institutes: Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN), The Water Institute, Centre for Bioengineering and Biotechnology (CBB)

Professional Associations

  • Canadian Society for Chemistry

Teaching*

  • MNS 431 - Special Topics in Nano-Biomaterials
    • Taught in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
  • NE 461 - Micro and Nano-instrumentation
    • Taught in 2019, 2021

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

Selected/Recent Publications

  • Yibo Liu and Juewen Liu*, "Salt-toggled Capture Selection of Uric Acid Binding Aptamers", ChemBioChem, in press (2022)
  • Chenqi Niu, Chong Zhang* and Juewen Liu*, "Capture-SELEX of DNA Aptamers for Estradiol Specifically and Estrogenic Compounds Collectively", Environmental Science & Technology, 56, 17702–17711 (2022)
  • Chang Lu, Anand Lopez, Jinkai Zheng and Juewen Liu*, "Using the intrinsic fluorescence of DNA to characterize aptamer binding intrinsic fluorescence", Molecules, 27, 7809 (2022)
  • Sarah Labas and Juewen Liu*, "Interactions between Caffeine, Theophylline and Derivatives with Gold Nanoparticles and Implications for Aptamer-Based Label-Free Colorimetric Detection", ChemPlusChem, 87, e202200265 (2022)
  • Pengbo Zhang, Ke Qin, Anand Lopez, Zhengping Li,* and Juewen Liu*, "A General Label-free Fluorescent Aptamer Binding Assay Using Cationic Conjugated Polymers", Analytical Chemistry, 94, 15456–15463 (2022)
  • Mohamad Zandieh and Juewen Liu*, "Removal and Degradation of Microplastics Using the Magnetic and Nanozyme Activities of Bare Iron Oxide Nanoaggregates" Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 61, e202212013 (2022).
  • Yichen Zhao, Biwen Gao, Peihuan Sun, Jiawen Liu and Juewen Liu*, "Metal and pH-Dependent Aptamer Binding of Tetracyclines Enabling Highly Sensitive Fluorescence Sensing", Biosensors, 12, 717 (2022)
  • Anand Lopez and Juewen Liu*, "Probing metal-dependent G-quadruplexes using the intrinsic fluorescence of DNA", Chemical Communications, 58, 10225-10228 (2022)
  • Chang Lu, Mohamad Zandieh, Jinkai Zheng* and Juewen Liu*, "Reversible and Irreversible HAuCl4 Binding to DNA for Seeded Gold Nanoparticle Growth and Opposite DNA and Aptamers Colorimetric Sensing Outcomes", Particle and Particle Systems Characterization, 39, 2200121 (2022)
  • Po-Jung Jimmy Huang and Juewen Liu*, "A DNA Aptamer for Theophylline with Ultrahigh Selectivity Reminiscent of the Classic RNA Aptamer", ACS Chemical Biology, 17, 2121–2129 (2022)
  • Pengbo Zhang, Chang Lu, Chenqi Niu, Xiaoyu Wang, Zhengping Li* and Juewen Liu*, "Binding Studies of Cationic Conjugated Polymers and DNA for Label-Free Fluorescent Biosensors", ACS Applied Polymer Materials, 4, 6211–6218 (2022)
  • Yichen Zhao, Steven Ong, Yijing Chen, Po-Jung Jimmy Huang and Juewen Liu*, "Label-free and Dye-free Fluorescent Sensing of Tetracyclines Using a Capture Selected DNA Aptamer", Analytical Chemistry, 94, 10175–10182 (2022)
  • Zhenfeng Wang, Yong Yan, Chao Li, Yue Yu, Sheng Cheng, Shuai Chen, Xiaojun Zhu, Liping Sun, Wei Tao, Juewen Liu and Feng Wang*, "Fluidity-Guided Assembly of Au@Pt on Liposomes as a Catalase-Powered Nanomotor for Effective Cell Uptake in Cancer Cells and Plant Leaves", ACS Nano, 16, 9019–9030 (2022)
  • Xingxing Jiang, Minghui Yang* and Juewen Liu*, "Capping Gold Nanoparticles to Achieve a Protein-Like Surface for LAMP Acceleration and Ultrasensitive DNA Detection", ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 14, 27666–27674 (2022)
  • Chang Lu, Mohamad Zandieh, Jinkai Zheng* and Juewen Liu, "DNA-directed Seeded Synthesis of Gold Nanoparticles without Changing DNA Sequence", ChemNanoMat, 8, e202200111 (2022)
  • Chang Lu, Po-Jung Jimmy Huang, Jinkai Zheng and Juewen Liu*, "2-Aminopurine Fluorescence Spectroscopy for Probing a Glucose Binding Aptamer", ChemBioChem, 23, e202200127 (2022)
  • Xun Liu, Yu Zhao, Yuzhe Ding, Jianhua Wang* and Juewen Liu*, "Stabilization of Gold Nanoparticles by Hairpin DNA and Implications for Label-free Colorimetric Biosensors", Langmuir, 38, 5542–5549 (2022)
  • Chenqi Niu, Chong Zhang* and Juewen Liu*, "Comparing two cortisol aptamers for label-free fluorescent and colorimetric biosensors", Sensors & Diagnostics, 1, 541-549 (2022)
  • Zhen Wang, Xumei Zhou; Jing Han; Gang Xie* and Juewen Liu*, "DNA coated CoZn-ZIF metal-organic frameworks for fluorescent sensing guanosine triphosphate and discrimination of nucleoside triphosphates", Analytica Chimica Acta, 1207, 339806 (2022)
  • Yibo Liu and Juewen Liu*, "Selection of DNA aptamers for sensing uric acid in simulated tears", Analysis & Sensing, 2, e202200010 (2022)
  • Mohamad Zandieh and Juewen Liu*, "Surface Science of Nanozymes and Defining a Nanozyme Unit", Langmuir, Invited Perspective Article, 38, 3617–3622 (2022)
  • Jinghan Wang, Zhen Wang, Po-Jung Jimmy Huang, Feng Bai* and Juewen Liu*，"Adsorption of DNA Oligonucleotides by Self-assembled Metalloporphyrin Nanomaterials", Langmuir, 38, 3553–3560 (2022)
  • Yuzhe Ding, Xun Liu, Po-Jung Jimmy Huang and Juewen Liu*, "Homogeneous assays for aptamer-based ethanolamine sensing: no indication of target binding", Analyst, 147, 1348-1356 (2022)
  • Po-Jung Jimmy Huang and Juewen Liu*, "Selection of Aptamers for Sensing Caffeine and Discrimination of Its Three Single Demethylated Analogs", Analytical Chemistry, 94, 3142–3149 (2022)
  • Mohamad Zandieh, Kshiti Patel and Juewen Liu*, "Adsorption of Linear and Spherical DNA Oligonucleotides onto Microplastics", Langmuir, 38, 1915–1922 (2022)
  • Zhen Wang, Xumei Zhou, Zhicheng Huang, Jing Han, Gang Xie* and Juewen Liu*, "A sensor array based on DNA-wrapped bimetallic zeolitic imidazolate frameworks for detection of ATP hydrolysis products", Nanoscale, 14, 26-34 (2022)
  • Jinghan Wang, Shanqing Gao, Xiao Wang, Haozhen Zhang, Xitong Ren, Juewen Liu* and Feng Bai*, "Self-assembled manganese phthalocyanine nanoparticles with Research Article enhanced peroxidase-like activity for anti-tumor therapy", Nano Research, 15, 2347–2354 (2022)
  • Po-Jung Jimmy Huang and Juewen Liu*, "Signaling kinetics of DNA and aptamer biosensors revealing graphene oxide surface heterogeneity", Journal of Analysis and Testing, 6, 20–27 (2022)
  • Yichen Zhao, Kayvan Yavari and Juewen Liu*, "Critical evaluation of aptamer binding for biosensor designs", TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry, 146, 116480 (2022)
  • Jiaojiao Zhou, Heyou Han* and Juewen Liu*, "Nucleobase, nucleoside, nucleotide and oligonucleotide coordinated metal ions for sensing and biomedicine applications", Nano Research, 15, 71–84 (2022)
  • View all Juewen Liu's publications on Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=rUzLOi8AAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate

Patents

  • Juewen Liu and Po-Jung Jimmy Huang, “Phosphorothioate DNAzymes Complexes and Use Thereof”, US patent 11,142,544 issued on October 12, 2021.
  • Yi Lu and Juewen Liu, “Nucleic acid based fluorescent sensor for copper detection”, US patent No. 8,409,800, issued on April 2, 2013.
  • Yi Lu and Juewen Liu, “Nucleic acid based fluorescent sensor for mercury detection”, US patent No. 8,367,416, issued on February 5, 2013.
  • Yi Lu and Juewen Liu, “Aptamer- and nucleic acid enzyme-based systems for simultaneous detection of multiple analytes”, US patent No. 8,058,415, issued on November 15, 2011.
  • Yi Lu and Juewen Liu, “Fluorescence based biosensor”, US patent No. 8,043,802, issued on October 15, 2011.
  • Yi Lu and Juewen Liu, “Fluorescence based biosensor”, US patent No. 7,906,320, issued on March 15, 2011.
  • Yi Lu and Juewen Liu, “Aptamer-based colorimetric sensor systems”, US patent No. 7,892,734, issued on February 22, 2011.
  • Debapriya Mazumdar, Juewen Liu, Yi Lu, “Lateral flow devices”, US patent No. 7,799,554, issued on September 21, 2010.
  • Yi Lu and Juewen Liu, “Nucleic acid biosensors”, US patent No. 7,612,185, issued on November 3, 2009.
  • Yi Lu and Juewen Liu, “Simple catalytic DNA biosensors for ions based on color changes”, US patent No. 7,534,560, issued on May 19, 2009.
  • Yi Lu and Juewen Liu, “Biosensors based on directed assembly of particles”, US Patent No. 7,485,419, issued on February 03, 2009.
  • Yi Lu and Juewen Liu “New fluorescence based biosensor”, US Patent No. 6,890,719, issued on May 10, 2005.

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