Dr Chun-Xia Zhao

Dr Chun-Xia Zhao is an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow and Associate group leader at AIBN. She leads a research team with a focus on bio-inspired engineering and microfluidics. Inspired by Nature, her team works on designing new biomolecules (peptides and proteins) for making functional materials for applications in controlled release and drug delivery. In order to achieve their large-scale production, they also develop facile and chromatography-free processes to produce these biomolecules at low cost. Her team also develops facile microfluidic approaches and biomimetic chips for making and evaluating nano- and micro-materials for controlled release, drug and vaccine delivery.

Dr Zhao’s research has attracted more than $2 M in research funding since 2011, including four ARC projects as the lead investigator, two national prestigious fellowship, and six UQ grants. Dr Zhao has been recognised for scientific excellence with a 2016 UQ Foundation Research Excellence Award. She has built extensive collaborations with scientists at top universities such as Harvard University, Cornell University, Zhejiang University, Fudan University, Tianjin University, etc. She was invited to visit Harvard University as a Fellow of the School of Engineering and Applied Science. She also serves as the Editor-in-Chief, Editorial Board member for a number of journals.