Cheng Zhang

Education

Undergraduate Institution: Yantai University

Graduate Institution: University of Queensland

Biography

Cheng grew up in Shandong, China and obtained his Master degree in Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) in 2012. He started his PhD study in University of Queensland in December 2012 under the supervision of Prof Andrew Whittaker. His research interests are in the development of novel responsive MRI contrast agents for cancer diagnosis at early stage. The molecular-level understanding of the ‘smart’ contrast agents were also investigated using high resolution NMR and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. Cheng received his PhD degree in September 2016 then started his postdoc position in UQ. In 2018 he obtained the NHMRC Early Career Fellowship and joined Prof Craig Hawker’s group in January 2019 as an NHMRC research fellow.

Research

Dr Cheng Zhang is working on the synthesis and characterisation of biomaterials, in particular, polymeric imaging agents. His research strengths are in molecular-level characterization by means of magnetic resonance and computational techniques. In the field of molecular imaging, in particular the 19F MRI, studies are currently being undertaken on applying highly fluorinated polymers as highly sensitive 19F MR agents for detection of breast cancer.