As a chemical engineer, UC San Diego professor Liangfang Zhang could have opted for career paths that had nothing to do with medicine or the greater human good. Yet for more than 15 years, Zhang has used his expertise to figure out how to disguise microscopic nanoparticles that can bypass the human immune system and precisely target ailments inside the body.<\/p>\n
The hope is that this novel technology pioneered by Zhang, chair of the Department of Chemical and Nano Engineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, will one day be used to treat and prevent numerous diseases and medical disorders, including cancer.<\/p>\n
For creating that technology, Zhang was named Tuesday as one of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation\u2019s 2026 fellows. The prestigious MacArthur fellowship<\/a>, typically awarded to about two dozen individuals each year, comes with an $800,000 prize that\u2019s often called the \u201cgenius grant.\u201d The money is paid directly to individual winners, not the institutions they work for, and can be spent however each fellow chooses.<\/p>\n \u201cA MacArthur fellowship is very important, not just to (my) field, but to the general public,\u201d Zhang told the Union-Tribune in an interview. \u201cThis is a very big deal to me personally, but more importantly, I feel it\u2019s a greater recognition (of) the work that myself and my teams have been working on over the past 16 years to develop this unique nano medicine technology.\u201d<\/p>\n Zhang, 46, said he and his colleagues know how \u201cvery innovative, and potentially very powerful\u201d that technology can be. But he hopes the MacArthur award, which draws national headlines each year, will help broadcast its importance to a wider audience.<\/p>\n \u201cI think with this type of recognition, it\u2019s really helpful and very meaningful,\u201d Zhang said.<\/p>\n