Email: hanquan.su@wyss.harvard.edu
Personal email: imsuhanquan@gmail.com
My name is Hanquan Su (Chinese name: 苏瀚铨). I was born in Beijing and raised in Tianjin, China. I earned my Bachelor of Science in Chemical Physics from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in Hefei, where I studied from 2010 to 2014. During my undergraduate years, I worked with Professor Weixin Huang to investigate catalysts composed of noble metals and metal oxides. In 2014, I moved to the United States to pursue a Ph.D. in Chemistry at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Under the guidance of Professor Khalid Salaita, my research focused on mechanobiology, biophysics, and DNA nanoscience. I developed a super-resolution imaging method to study integrin-mediated mechanotransduction, and also created DNA origami polymer force clamps for high-throughput manipulation of biomolecular forces. Since December 2020, I have been a postdoctoral fellow at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, where I work with Professor Peng Yin to develop DNA-based molecular imaging platforms. At the Wyss Institute, my research centers on creating DNA-based tools to investigate the spatial organization of RNA and proteins, enabling the profiling of key molecules across multiple scales.
Degree
Ph.D. in Chemistry (Advisor: Professor Khalid Salaita), Emory University, 2020
B.S. in Chemical Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, 2014
Specific Research Area
Biophysics, Nanoscience, Biomolecular Chemistry.
Awards and Honors
Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Finance Students Abroad
Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, 2021
BPS Student Travel Award
Biophysical Society, 2019
Quayle Student Achievement Award
Emory University, 2019
Chinese Undergraduate Visiting Research (UGVR) Program
Stanford University, 2013
Selected Publications
"Massively Parallelized Molecular Force Manipulation with On-Demand Thermal and Optical Control", Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2021.
"Live-cell super-resolved PAINT imaging of piconewton cellular traction forces", Nature Methods, 2020.
"Mechanical stimulation of adhesion receptors using light-responsive nanoparticle actuators enhances myogenesis", ACS applied materials & interfaces, 2020
"Localized nanoscale heating leads to ultrafast hydrogel volume-phase transition", ACS Nano, 2018.
"Light-responsive polymer particles as force clamps for the mechanical unfolding of target molecules", Nano letters, 2018.
Presentations
“ACE Enables Multiscale Highly Multiplexed Biomolecule Imaging with Signal Amplification” (Poster Presentations)
69th BPS Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, CA, USA, February 15, 2025
“Multiplexing in cleared samples” (Oral Presentations)
Tissue Clearing Workshop, Harvard University, February 10, 2025
“Scalable DNA-based bioimaging of proteins and RNAs in cells and tissues” (Oral Presentations)
MicRoN Open House Symposium, Harvard University, February 26, 2024
“Polymer force clamps for the mechanical unfolding of target molecules.” (Oral Presentations)
64th BPS Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, USA, February 18, 2020.
“Light-Responsive Polymer Particles as Force Clamps for the Mechanical Unfolding of Biomolecules (Poster Presentations)
63rd BPS Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD, USA, March 2, 2019.
“Light-Responsive Polymer Particles as Force Clamps for the Mechanical Unfolding of Biomolecules” (Poster Presentations)
The 10th Biennial Single Molecule Biophysics Conference, Aspen Center for Physics, CO, USA, January 6-11, 2019.
“Light-Responsive Polymer Particles as Force Clamps for the Mechanical Unfolding of Target Molecules” (Poster Presentations)
The 11th Southeast Meeting on Soft Materials, Emory University, GA, USA, May 23, 2018.
“Light-Responsive Polymer Particles as Force Clamps for the Mechanical Unfolding of Target Molecules” (Poster Presentations)
Greater Atlanta Chemical Biology Symposium (GACBS) 2018 Program, GA, USA, April 21, 2018.
“Nanoparticles for mechanical unfolding of biomolecules” (Poster Presentations)
Molecular Assembly and Function Conference, Emory University, GA, USA, June 2, 2017.
“Dynamic Materials for Synthetic Muscle and Optomechanics” (Poster Presentations)
Molecular Assembly and Function Conference, Emory University, GA, USA, June 2, 2017.
“Nanoscale optomechanical actuators for controlling mechanotransduction in living cells” (Poster Presentations)
The 11th annual Emerson Center Lectureship Award Symposium, Emory University, GA, USA, October 5, 2015.