PhD student
yunxin.xiao@monash.edu
Cindy is currently a third year PhD candidate under the supervision of Professor Ben Boyd in Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS), Monash University. Her research interest is in engineering lipid and polymer colloids of various geometry and investigating their cellular interactions with macrophages and cancer cells, to achieve a controlled release mechanism and minimise the dosage frequency of anti-cancer therapy. She prepared elongated liposomes encapsulating ciprofloxacin drug nanocrystals functionalised with azide “click” chemistry groups for a targeted delivery to dibenzocyclooctyne (DBCO)-functionalised cells by metabolic labelling, and now she is using these elongated liposomes as the template to engineer elongated nanocapsules by RAFT polymerisation. She utilises a range of techniques for the structural analysis of the elongated nanoparticles, including cryo-TEM, small and ultra-small angle neutron scattering (SANS/USANS), small and wide angle X-ray scattering (SAXS/WAXS). She also has experience in culturing cancer cells in both 2D monolayer and spheroids and imaging them with confocal microscopy and total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy.
Her PhD project is funded by ARC Centre of Excellence in Convergent Bio-Nano Science & Technology (CBNS), Monash International Tuition Scholarship (MITS) and Monash Graduate Scholarship (MGS). She was also awarded the Postgraduate Graduate Research Award (PGRA) and Honours Scholarship from the Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering (AINSE) to use the SANS/USANS facility at the Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering (ACNS), Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO). She was awarded the Overseas Travel Fellowship (OTP) from the Australian Nanotechnology Network (ANN) to visit the Institute of Chemical Engineering and Sciences (ICES) for a placement project working with Dr Alexander Jackson. She also collaborates with Prof Dan Peer in Tel-Aviv University with the 3D cancer spheroid model. She was awarded the Honourable Geoffrey Connard AM Student Travelling Scholarship and AINSE International Travel Scholarship to attend a number of international and domestic conferences in the field of polymer science and drug delivery and was awarded poster and oral presentation prizes multiple times.