Madame Yi-Wen YAO / doctorant

I have long been interested in medicinal chemistry, and developing bioactive molecules to treat various diseases is fascinating to me. Consequently, I selected medicinal chemistry as my major in my undergraduate study at Kaohsiung Medical University (KMU). During my undergraduate study and Master program, I joined the group of Prof. Chai-Lin KAO at KMU to study dendrimer chemistry. During that time, I mainly worked on the synthesis of functional dendrimers and I’m really interested in dendrimer nanosystems to deliver drugs, biopharmaceuticals and imaging agents. Currently in my PhD program, I am working on developing a new method for dendrimer synthesis using the dynamic covalent chemistry (DCC) approach through boronate ester formation. DCC has been intensively exploited in polymer chemistry, but only recently it has attracted attention in dendrimer chemistry. In my PhD thesis, I will work on developing boronate ester dendrimers as a new delivery vehicle for small molecular anticancer drugs, biopharmaceutics based on peptides and nucleic acids, and imaging agents as well. I have already initiated dendrimer synthesis at KMU in Taiwan in my first and second PhD years, and I will perform dendrimer characterization and evaluation in the group of Dr. Ling PENG at Aix-Marseille University (AMU) in France according to my co-tutorship PhD program. Dr. Peng is a leading expert in the conception, synthesis and evaluation of dendrimers in biomedical applications. My research program in France will merge my experience in dendrimer synthesis with dendrimer characterization and biological evaluation, guiding me into the exciting nanomedicine field. This challenging and multidisciplinary PhD project will certainly advance my experience in synthetic chemistry and also offer me a unique opportunity to combine my synthetic chemistry background with nanotechnology and biological research for biomedical applications. I’m convinced that my engagement in this PhD project and my PhD program under the joint supervision of Prof. Kao at KMU and Dr. Peng at AMU will be extremely beneficial to me, not only for realizing my current PhD program but also for scientific training and future career building. I strongly believe that this Eiffel fellowship will offer me the unique and important opportunity to perform my PhD program in France, and will open my mind, expand my knowledge and enrich my experience in independent research, as well as allowing me to establish contacts and collaborations with French researchers, which will certainly be valuable for my current PhD program and future career. I want to develop myself as a capable and competitive research scientist, contributing my knowledge, experience, and endeavor to the collaboration between France and Taiwan as well as to the benefit of society and human well-being.