The nanomedicine division of the Lin lab has grown rapidly in recent years and become a major component of the group’s work. We have developed tunable nanoscale MOFs that can be loaded with small molecules to probe intracellular conditions and for anticancer efficacy. nMOFs can be excited by light from the visible spectrum to X-rays for radiotherapy and to potentiate checkpoint blockade immunotherapy.

Cancer is a major public health problem around the world that still faces significant obstacles in clinical treament settings. Nanoscale coordination polymers are self-assembled materials capable of carrying various therapeutics. We are particularly focused on stabilizing highly reactive compounds with significant anticancer properties which has not been harnassed to its full potential.

Benefit from the unique molecular structure and site-isolation effect, MOFs could serve as a great platform for designing single-site solid catalysts with unique selectivity and exceptional activity, demonstrating potential application in sustainable catalysis and asymmetric catalysis. MOF catalysts were shown to be highly active for a wide range of reactions, including broad-scope hydrogenations, CH functionalizations, and (hetero)arene dearomatizations.

Sunlight is a highly underutilized energy source with potential to solve the world's energy problems. We surmise that MOFs can integrate different molecular components into a functional water splitting system for this purpose.

The Lin group had a group outing to Kankakee River State Park where we enjoyed a barbecue and a variety of games and sports.

Congratulations to Dr. Yingjie Fan for receiving the highly competitve Yang Cao-Lan-Xian Best Thesis Award in the Department of Chemistry in Organic/Inorganic Chemistry!