The JC STEM Lab of ChemProbes
The Laboratory at Hong Kong Baptist University has been established under the leadership of its Director, Professor David Parker FRS, Global STEM Chair Professor of the Department of Chemistry at HKBU. The research team is a group of molecular engineers, designing, creating and testing new chemical probes that may provide unique information on the probe environment for analytical and diagnostic purposes.
Research
We develop molecular probes as bio-imaging agents in three domains: in vitro - for laboratory analyses of target bioactive species; in cellulo - where the probe reports in real time on the local cellular environment; in vivo - using spectral imaging responding to local temperature change, for example, allowing the creation of temperature maps. These molecular imaging probes could potentially be used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and various diagnostic and optical imaging protocols.
We examine how the developed probes work in order to understand their mode of action, including the signalling mechanism which involves electromagnetic radiation of different energies using either visible light for luminescent probes or radiofrequency energy for MRI probes.
The team is collaborating with groups within HKBU, and beyond e.g. with Prof Renren Deng (Zhejiang University China) and Prof Robert Pal (Durham University, UK).
Read more about our director's voice in South China morning post - click here to read
