ProfessorWei Duan

Based at School of Medicine, Professor Wei Duan is a Co-Director of Cancer Theme at The Molecular and Medical Research Strategic Research Centre. Prof Duan is the Chair of Laboratory Biosafety Committee of Deakin University (2016--). He works on development of novel nucleic acids-based aptamer (chemical antibodies) technology platforms for future medicine. Professor Duan has filed five international patents on aptamer technology and their application in the treatment and diagnosis of cancer stem cells. Professor Duan is a world leading expert in developing aptamer-based targeted delivery of siRNA and chemotherapy drugs to cancer stem cells in vivo. In collaboration with Prof. Jesper Wengel in Denmark, Prof. Duan and co-workers have developed world smallest aptamer (11-mer) that recognizes a cancer stem cell marker in vivo. Professor Duan is the Editor-in-Chief of "Drug Design, Development and Therapy", and has published more than 40 review articles and 120 original research papers in peer reviewed journal articles, with an h-index of 30 (average citations per article 25).