Dr. Kai Huang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Materials Science & Engineering at the University of Toronto. His research interests are at the intersection of materials science and biomedical research, focusing on the development of colloidal nanoparticles with unconventional optical properties for biomedical imaging and cancer treatment. In particular, to address the issues of invasive light-delivery and autofluorescence noise in conventional biophotonics, he developed luminescent nanomaterials that exhibit anti-Stokes shift upconversion luminescence or superlong lifetime persistent luminescence. These nanomaterials will bring deep tissue-penetrating near-infrared (NIR) light for wireless control of cancer immunotherapy or enable
ultrasensitive bioimaging without causing background autofluorescence, respectively.

Research Team: <10 trainees
Facilities: Nanomaterials preparations (wet chemistry and solid reactions), optical characterizations