Special Interview with Prof. Wei Chen-An International Renowned Expert in Nanomedicine and Cancer Nanotechnology

On April 16, 2023, the Editorial Office of the Journal of Cancer Metastasis and Treatment (JCMT) had the privilege of conducting a special interview with Professor Wei Chen, a tenured professor of physics at the University of Texas at Arlington in the United States.

Prof. Chen is a member of the journal's Editorial Board and led the excellent Special Issue "The Role of Nanotechnology in Cancer: Current Status and Challenges". In the interview, Prof. Chen shared his recent research on "Nanoparticle Self-lighting Photodynamic Therapy". He also talked about his wonderful work experiences as a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and a Member of the Academy of Distinguished Scholars at the University of Texas at Arlington, the United States. In addition, he discussed the limitations of photodynamic therapy, the potential of nanotechnology in cancer treatment. Moreover, he gave some suggestions in improving the quality of manuscripts. At last, he indicated his positive attitude for work and life.

The informative special interview with Prof. Chen involves several questions in two parts:

Part One:
Q 1: First off, congratulations on your election to the National Academy of Inventors (NAI Fellow), the highest honor awarded to academic inventors in the United States. Could you share with us your experience in achieving this success?

Q 2: As we know, you proposed the concept of nanoparticle self-lighting photodynamic therapy for the treatment of deep tumors, which is a real contribution to society and solves the real problems of people. Could you give us a brief introduction to this treatment?

Q 3: We know that the current treatment for cancer includes chemotherapy, radiotherapy, etc. Besides the advantages you described above, does photodynamic therapy have any limitations at present?

Q 4: As a distinguished scientist in the field of cancer nanomedicine, what motivated you to accept our invitation to join the Editorial Board of JCMT and help us lead the Special Issue "The Role of Nanotechnology in Cancer: Status and Challenges"?

Q 5: What do you think are the most promising applications of nanotechnology in cancer treatment? How can nanoparticles deliver drugs directly to cancer cells?

Q 6: JCMT has just been included in the ESCI database in December last year and is now at a critical moment of development. Do you have any good suggestions for the development of JCMT journal?

Part Two:
Q 7: The quality of manuscripts is crucial to the development of a journal. What do you think is the key to controlling the quality of manuscripts?

Q 8: Most scientific researchers, especially some young scholars, may feel "bored" or "lonely" due to "repetitive experiments" and even suffer from great pressure and frustration. As a well-known and successful scientist, how do you maintain a positive and optimistic attitude and balance work and life under such a heavy research workload?

Biography of the Interviewee

Professor Wei Chen is at the Department of Physics, University of Texas at Arlington. He has been engaged in cutting-edge nanotechnology research for many years and is an internationally renowned expert in nanomedicine and cancer nanotechnology. He is Known for his inventions in the development of cancer nanotechnology and the photodynamic therapy of deep cancer. He has published 328 articles in internationally renowned scientific journals, presided over the compilation of a monograph (three volumes), two books are being published, and participated in the compilation of 15 chapters of the monograph. Papers have been cited more than 15,000 times, with an H index of 62, of which the highest single paper has been cited 726 times. He has obtained 22 US patents, and his scientific research work has received wide attention, and has been interviewed and reported by the US TV program CBS. He proposed the concept of "Nanoparticle Self-lighting Photodynamic Therapy" to treat deep cancer, and invented the fourth-generation photosensitizer-copper cysteamine. This new photosensitizer can generate reactive oxygen species in ultraviolet light, X-rays, microwaves and ultrasound for the treatment of cancer and infectious diseases. His 2006 article "Using nanoparticles to enable simultaneous radiation and photodynamic therapies for cancer treatment" in JNN Nanoscience and Nanotechnology has been cited 643 times. In 2017, American Science Press awarded him the best paper award. He pioneered CuS-based photothermal therapy and microwave-induced oxidation therapy. His paper "Copper sulfide nanoparticles for photothermal ablation of tumor cells" published on Nanomedicine has been cited 591 times and has become a research hotspot. Web of Science has classified this paper in the Biotechnology Applied Microbiology category and ranks it #384 out of 123573 articles. Prof. Chen received the University of Texas Distinguished Achievement Award in 2020. In 2000, he was elected as one of the 35 scientists who were senior members of the National Academy of Inventors of the United States. At the same time, he was elected as a Fellow of the International Association of Advanced Materials and a Senior Member of Sigma Xi in the United States. In 2021, he elected as a Vebleo Fellow and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Due to his outstanding contributions in cancer and tumor research, he finally won the internationally renowned Pencis Award. In 2022, the International Association of Advanced Materials awarded Professor Wei Chen the Distinguished Scientist Award to recognize his outstanding contributions in nanotechnology. In the same year, he was elected as a fellow for the National Academy of Inventors and He serves at the global advisory board for Sigma Xi Society. In 2023, he was elected as a member of academy of distinguished scholars at the University of Texas at Arlington.

The ongoing hot Special Issue "The Role of Nanotechnology in Cancer: Current Status and Challenges" led by Prof. Wei Chen is open for high-quality submissions! If you are interested in this international project, please submit your article to the following link:

Online submission link: https://oaemesas.com/login?JournalId=jcmt&SpecialIssueId=jcmt20230216

Respectfully Submitted by the Journal Editorial Office
Journal of Cancer Metastasis and Treatment