Julian Alexander Tanner

BSc, Chemistry, Bristol University, UK 1997

PhD, Chemistry, Imperial College London, UK, 2001

Postdoctoral Fellow, Dept. Biochemistry, University of Hong Kong  2001-2004

Research Assistant Professor, Dept. Biochemistry, University of Hong Kong 2004-2008

Assistant Professor, Dept. Biochemistry, University of Hong Kong  2008-2013

Associate Professor (Tenured), Dept Biochem then School Biomedical Sciences  2014-2019

Professor (Tenured), School of Biomedical Sciences    2019-

Director of the Common Core, HKU      2023-

Julian's research field is chemical biology and DNA nanotechnology. The team has long-standing expertise in directed nucleic acid evolution of aptamers for translational biomedical application. The Tanner lab brings together interdisciplinary experimental approaches at the interface of biomedical science, chemistry and engineering to tackle major medical challenges. His highly collaborative research team is developing new technologies for biosensing, diagnostics and therapeutics in a variety of contexts, across a wide range of disease areas including cancer, sepsis, and infectious disease. The team also works in DNA nanotechnology, in particular in cryoEM analysis of nanoscale DNA structure coupled to downstream applications of such structures. 

Bhuyan, S.K., Wang, L., Jinata, C., Kinghorn, A.B., Liu, M., He, W., Sharma, R. & Tanner, J.A. Directed evolution of a G-quadruplex peroxidase DNAzyme and application in proteomic DNAzyme-aptamer proximity labeling. J. Am. Chem. Soc., https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.3c02625 (2023) 

Guo, W.*, Kinghorn, A.B.*, Zhang, Y., Li, Q., Poonam, A.D., Tanner, J.A.* & Shum, H.C.* Non-associative phase separation in an evaporating droplet as a model for prebiotic compartmentalization. Nature Commun, 12, 1-13 (2021)

Minopoli, A., Della Ventura, B., Lenyk, B., Gentile, F., Tanner, J. A. Offenhausser, A., Mayer, D. & Velotta, R. Ultrasensitive antibody-aptamer plasmonic biosensor for malaria biomarker detection in whole blood. Nature Commun, 11, 6134 (2020)

Cheung, Y.W.*, Rothlisberger, P.*, Mechaly, A.E., Weber, P.P.W., Levi-Acobas, F., Lo, Y.,, Wong, A.W.C., Kinghorn, A.B., Haouz, A., Savage, G.P., Hollenstein, M.* & Tanner, J.A.* Evolution of abiotic cubane chemistries in a nucleic acid aptamer allows selective recognition of a malaria biomarker. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 117, 16790 (2020)

Liang, S., Kinghorn, A.B., Voliotis, M., Prague, J.K., Veldhuis, J.D., Tsaneva-Atanasova, K., McArdle, C.A., Li, R.H.W., Cass, A.E.G.*, Dhillo, W.S.* & Tanner, J.A.* Measuring luteinising hormone pulsatility with a robotic aptamer-enabled electrochemical reader. Nature Commun, 10,  852 (2019)

Full publication list link:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=rzUAjQsAAAAJ&hl=en

The University of Hong Kong Teaching Innovation Award (Team)  2023

Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Reimagine Education Silver and Bronze Awards 2023

Hong Kong University Grants Committee (UGC) Teaching Award (Team) 2019

The University of Hong Kong Outstanding Teacher (Team) Award  2018

The University of Hong Kong Outstanding Research Student Supervisor Award 2017

The University of Hong Kong Outstanding Young Researcher Award  2016

The University of Hong Kong Outstanding Teacher Award   2015