Julian Alexander Tanner
Academic title: Professor, School of Biomedical sciences
HKU address: Office L3-70, 3/F Laboratory Block, School of Biomedical Sciences, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, 21 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam
Email: jatanner@hku.hk
Tel: +852 3917 9472
HKU lab webpage link: https://www.sbms.hku.hk/staff/julian-alexander-tanner
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=rzUAjQsAAAAJ&hl=en
Education
BSc, Chemistry, Bristol University, UK 1997
PhD, Chemistry, Imperial College London, UK, 2001
Employment
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-
Research Description
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.
Selected Publications
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
Honours and Awards
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
