Contact

Ranhua Xiong
Laboratory for General Biochemistry and Physical Pharmacy
Ottergemsesteenweg 460
9000 Ghent
Belgium
Tel: 0032 9 2648047 (secretary)
Tel: 0032 9 264 8074 (direct)

E-mail: Ranhua.Xiong@UGent.be

Biography

03/2012 - present

Doctor training/Biophotonic Imaging

Biophotonic Imaging Group Lab. General Biochemistry & Physical Pharmacy Ghent University

10/2010-02/2012

Doctor training /Low Temperature Plasmas.

Department of Applied Physics, Faculty of Engineering, Ghent University, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

09/2007-07/2010

M.Sc. /Fluid Mechanics

Department of Modern Mechanics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei,  Anhui, P. R. China

Scholarship

11/2009    Guanghua Education Scholarship
11/2006    Outstanding Student Scholarship
11/2006    Excellent Student Honor
11/2005    Outstanding Student Scholarship

Main publications

1. Ranhua Xiong, Stefaan J. Soenen, Kevin Braeckmans, Andre G. Skirtach, Towards Theranostic Multicompartment Microcapsules: in-situ Diagnostics and Laser- induced Treatment. Theranostics 2013; 3(3):141-151. Doi:10.7150/thno.5846.
2. Ranhua Xiong, Qing Xiong, Anton Yu. Nikiforov, Patrick Vanraes, and Christophe Leys, Influence of helium mole fraction distribution on the properties of cold atmospheric pressure helium plasma jets, J. Appl. Phys. 112, 033305 (2012); http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4746700 (8 pages)
3. Ranhua Xiong, Anton Yu. Nikiforov, Patrick Vanraes, and Christophe Leys, Characteristics of an underwater DC discharge in bubbles and the temperature distribution in the bubbles, Phys. Plasmas 19, 023501 (2012); doi:10.1063/1.3680615 (7 pages)
4. Ranhua Xiong, Anton Yu. Nikiforov, Patrick Vanraes, and Christophe Leys, Hydrogen peroxide generation by DC and pulsed underwater discharge in air bubbles, J. Adv. Oxid. Technol. Vol. 15, No. 1, 2012, Pages: 197-204
5. Ranhua Xiong, Ming Xu, YaoFa Li, Jiming Yang, Xisheng Luo, Yongbo Yu, Tiezhu Zhao, An experimental study on deformation and breakup of a drop-in-liquid under an impact loading, Science in China Series G – Physics Mechanics & Astronomy, Vol.40. No.6: 773~780,2010

Educational tasks

• Selected lessons on metabolism in the course Biochemie II(2nd Bachelor pharmacists).
• Selected lessons on ultrasound triggered drug delivery.

Summary of Research Project(s)

Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) have received a lot of attention in this context as enhancers of the photothermal effect. Due to plasmon resonances GNPs have a photon absorption cross section that is 5 to 6 orders of magnitude larger than that of organic chromophores. As a result, they can be used to efficiently enhance damage to malignant tissues through a variety of photothermal effects upon laser irradiation. One type of laser GNP photothermal effect that has received relatively little attention so far is the generation of water vapour nanobubbles (VNBs) by pulsed laser irradiation, the physics of which have been explored only very recently [5]. A short laser pulse (< 10 ns) causes rapid heating of the GNP to very high temperatures which in turn causes a VNB to emerge around the GNP in the tissue. Depending on the laser intensity the VNB can grow up to a size of several hundred nm. When the thermal energy of the GNP is consumed, the VNB violently collapses causing local damage by high-pressure shock waves. As illustrated in figure, the global aim in this project is to use VNBs as a novel strategy to tackle two unresolved issues that are receiving a lot of attention in pharmaceutical research: (i) efficient delivery of exogenous nanomaterials in the cytosol of target cells, and (ii) selective eradication of bacterial biofilm infections.