UC Berkeley

October 23, 2007 4:15 pm to 6:15 pm

Professor Yen Wei from Drexel University will give a seminar at at 4:15 in the Chemical Engineering Gazebo on Oct. 23 (Tuesday). Please contact Zhenan Bao (3-2419, zbao@stanford.edu) if you are interested in meeting him. Speaker: Dr. Yen Wei, Herman B. Wagner Professor of Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104 (weiyen@drexel.edu). ABSTRACT: We have developed a novel, biocompatible nonsurfactant-templating pathway to nanoporous metal oxides with high surface area (~1000 m2/g) and pore volume (~1.0 cm3/g) as well as pore size in the range of 2-15 nm with narrow pore size distribution[1]. The nonsurfactant molecules, such as glucose, dibenzoyl tartaric acid, fructose, cyclodextrins, urea, glycerol, etc., are used as templates to direct the mesostructure formation in sol-gel reactions. The entire preparation can be performed at room temperature and neutral pH. Such a novel materials platform has enabled us to encapsulate a variety of bioactive substances including enzymes, proteins, nucleic acids and therapeutic agents directly in nanoporous host materials for biocatalysis, biosensor, drug release, nanobioreactor, and enzyme therapy applications [2]. This also provides a new tool to study protein behavior in confined space, including protein folding and protein-protein interactions as well as protein aggregations as in Alzheimer???s and Parkinson???s diseases. The nanoporous materials have also been employed as fillers for the synthesis of nanocomposite and dental materials. In addition, electroactive materials have been used as scaffolds for neural, cardiac and stem cell tissue engineering [3]. [1] Wei, et al. Adv. Mater. 3:313 (1998) and 12:1448 (2000); US Pat. 6,696,258 (2004). [2] Wei, et al. J. Nanosci. Nanotech. 1:83 (2001); Nano Lett. 6:1042 (2006). [3] Huang, et al. Biomaterials, 28:1741 (2007). Dr. Yen Wei was born in 1957 and received BS and MS in Chemistry at Peking University in China in 1979 and 1981, respectively. He then earned his PhD from the City University of New York in 1986. After postdoctoral work at MIT, he joined Drexel University in 1987, where he was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 1991 and to Full Professor in 1995. Currently, Dr. Wei is the Herman B. Wagner Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Center for Advanced Polymers and Materials Chemistry. He also holds joint Professorship in the Department of Materials Science & Engineering and the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems at Drexel. Dr. Wei has contributed to various fields of polymer, materials, and biological chemistry. He has co-edited 2 books, co-authored 395 scientific articles (> 4300 citations) plus about 140 abstracts, and held 10 issued US patents. He also delivered over 360 seminars and presentations worldwide. Among the awards Dr. Wei received include the ACS Philadelphia Section Award, Drexel Research Achievement Award, and DuPont Young Faculty Award.. Dr. Wei has also been appointed Guest Professor at 16 universities in USA and China. He was a Visiting Fellow at Princeton University. In 2006, he was honored with an endowed Chang Jiang Lecture-Chair Professorship at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China, and a Nanotechnology Chair Professorship at Chung-Yuan Christian University in Taiwan.