About Me
My name is Hanquan Su (Chinese name: 苏瀚铨). I go by "Han" since I am a huge fan of Han Solo in STAR WARS.
I was raised in Tianjin, China, and completed my Bachelor of Science in Chemical Physics at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in Hefei from 2010 to 2014. During this time, I was fortunate to work under the guidance of Prof. Weixin Huang, where I studied catalysts involving noble metals and metal oxides. In 2014, I relocated to the United States to pursue a Ph.D. in Chemistry at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. My work, supervised by Prof. Khalid Salaita, centered on mechanobiology, biophysics, and DNA nanoscience. My Ph.D. research led me to develop a super-resolution imaging method to explore integrin-mediated mechanotransduction. Concurrently, I constructed origami-polymer force clamps as a means to manipulate the force of biomolecules in a high-throughput manner. In December 2020, I joined the Wyss Institute at Harvard University as a postdoctoral fellow in Boston, where I now work with Prof. Peng Yin on advancing a DNA-based bioimaging platform.
Biography
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, Spatial Biology.
Awards and Honors
Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Finance Students Abroad, China Scholarship Council, 2021
BPS Student Travel Award, Biophysical Society, 2019
Quayle Student Achievement Award, Department of Chemistry, Emory University, 2019
Chinese Undergraduate Visiting Research (UGVR) Program, Stanford University, 2013
Selected Publications
Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2021, 143 (46), 19466-19473, "Massively Parallelized Molecular Force Manipulation with On-Demand Thermal and Optical Control" (first-author)
Nature Methods, 2020, 17 (10), 1018-1024, "Live-cell super-resolved PAINT imaging of piconewton cellular traction forces" (first-author)
ACS applied materials & interfaces, 2020, 12 (32), 35903-35917, "Mechanical stimulation of adhesion receptors using light-responsive nanoparticle actuators enhances myogenesis"
ACS Nano, 2018, 13 (1), 515-525, "Localized nanoscale heating leads to ultrafast hydrogel volume-phase transition"
Nano letters, 2018, 18 (4), 2630-2636, "Light-responsive polymer particles as force clamps for the mechanical unfolding of target molecules" (first-author)
Presentations
Oral Presentations
1. “Scalable DNA-based bioimaging of proteins and RNAs in cells and tissues”
MicRoN Open House Symposium, Harvard University, Feb 26th, 2024
2. “Polymer force clamps for the mechanical unfolding of target molecules.”
64th BPS Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, USA, Feb 18, 2020.
3. “Nanoparticles for mechanical unfolding of biomolecules”
Molecular Assembly and Function Conference, Emory University, GA, USA, June 2, 2017.
Poster Presentations
1. “Light-Responsive Polymer Particles as Force Clamps for the Mechanical Unfolding of biomolecules”
63rd BPS Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD, USA, March 2, 2019.
2. “Light-Responsive Polymer Particles as Force Clamps for the Mechanical Unfolding of biomolecules”
The 10th Biennial Single Molecule Biophysics Conference, Aspen Center for Physics, CO, USA, January 6-11, 2019.
3. “Light-Responsive Polymer Particles as Force Clamps for the Mechanical Unfolding of Target
Molecules” The 11th Southeast Meeting on Soft Materials, Emory University, GA, USA, May 23, 2018.
4. “Light-Responsive Polymer Particles as Force Clamps for the Mechanical Unfolding of Target
Molecules” Greater Atlanta Chemical Biology Symposium (GACBS) 2018 Program, GA, USA, April 21, 2018.
5. “Dynamic Materials for Synthetic Muscle and Optomechanics”
Molecular Assembly and Function Conference, Emory University, GA, USA, June 2, 2017.
6. “Nanoscale optomechanical actuators for controlling mechanotransduction in living cells”
The 11th annual Emerson Center Lectureship Award Symposium, Emory University, GA, USA, October 5, 2015.