Highlights

• Research background in both Analytical Chemistry and Biotechnology.

• Experience in method development/validation for both small molecules and macromolecules (proteins, DNA and polymers).

• Experience in QC method transfer to manufacturing sites with knowledge of both GLP and GMP.

• Experience in a wide array of analytical, spectroscopic and wet chemistry techniques and have a deep understanding of separation science.

• Experience in statistic data analysis with critical thinking and great technical writing skills.

• Project leader and CMC team member with excellent project management and problem solving skills to ensure on-time multiple projects’ delivery.

Education

2005-2009 Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry; University of Florida, GPA: 3.9/4.0

Dissertation title: Engineering Multifunctional Nucleic Acid Probes for Tumor Gene Detection and Targeted Therapy

2001-2004 M.S. in Inorganic Chemistry; Xiamen University, GPA: 4.0/4.0

Thesis title: The Study of Water Clusters and Chiral Symmetry Breaking by Complex Polymers

1997-2001 B.S. in Chemistry; Huaqiao University, GPA: 3.8/4.0

Thesis title: The Relationship Study between Molecular Structures and Redox Potentials

Working/Research Experience

01/2010-present Senior Analytical Chemist, Syngenta, Greensboro, NC

1. Develop and execute analytical and spectroscopic methods to support the characterization and quantification of Active Ingredient, raw materials, intermediates, in-progress and finished formulation products; the work includes degradation and trace level impurity profiles; the formulation product formats include liquid form, granule and microcapsule.

2. Validate methods under GLP, including specificity, accuracy, linearity, precision, limit of quantitation (LOQ) and robustness tests afterwards.

3. Transfer the methods to manufacturing sites and contract manufacturing organization (CMO) with knowledge of good manufacturing practices (GMP) to ensure regulatory compliance, including specification settings, impurity control, QC lab setup and personnel training, supplier source evaluation/auditing and manufacturing trouble shooting.

4. Work closely with process formulation group, packaging group, synthesis group, QA/QC, reference standard manage team, engineering group, manufacturing, and sale & marketing group, etc. to support the analytical method development, regulatory compliance, manufacturing processes and products through various phases.

5. Serve as a study director (a single point of accountability) for GLP studies with responsibilities of initiating the protocol, leading/conducting GLP studies (characterization, method validation, method equivalency, five representative batches characterization, storage stability test, by-product spectra profile, etc.), and then author/review GLP reports to support regulatory submission.

6. Analytical project leader and CMC team member, directing contractors and internal junior chemists to initiate and execute laboratory experiments; have a track record of excellent project management/coordination skills to ensure on-time project delivery.

7. Use statistical data analysis for data/method evaluation (by JMP and excel) and have knowledge of Design of Experiment (DOE).

8. Excellent technical writing skills which were used to author/review various technical documents for various customers on all the work performed; and be able to design the experiments for the problems raised by the customers, interpret the experimental results to solve the problems and then translate into proper languages for non-technical customers.

9. Develop and execute analytical and spectroscopic methods to support the characterization and quantification of excipients (both small molecules and macromolecules), offering vendor comparison, reverse engineering of both raw materials and competitor products, complain sample investigation and manufacturing trouble shooting.

10. Act as an analytical global champion of one critical active ingredient; supporting manufacturing for about 1 billion’s sale market. Lead/attend a multi-functional team to offer timely analytical support for global or local organizations. The work includes new source identification, generic defense, registration, genotoxicity study, etc.

11. Maintain current with advances in analytical technologies and separation science, and bring innovative solutions to the organization.

12. Apply GPC/SEC with tetra detectors (RI, viscometer, LS, UV) to differentiate protein aggregates from monomers and determine molecular weight distributions.

13. Microencapsulation studies, including substance releasing profile, morphology changes from chemical/environmental effects and capsule walls compositions.

14. Study morphology changes by FTIR, DSC and microscopy, and provide structure elucidation by (pyrolysis) GC/MS, FTIR, HPLC/UV/CAD, GPC/RI/UV/Viscometer/LS, TGA, GC, IC, titration and other wet chemistry techniques.

15. Facilitate and encourage use of Network of Excellence (NOE), our key platform for sharing innovation and knowledge across sites. Served as department point person to train members on use, police discussion board and capture knowledge.

16. Certificates of Applied & Advanced project management, Kepner-Tregoe problem analysis, Dynamic New Approaches to Leadership and Management.

2005-2009 Research Assistant, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL

Actively initiated research projects and built collaborations inside/outside a multidisciplinary group with about 35 members.

Protein/DNA Related Work

1. Developed methods to characterize/purify proteins with HPLC (RP, SEC, AFC), SDS-PAGE (Coomassie and silver staining), GPC/SEC with tetra detectors; and determined protein concentration by BCA and UV.

2. Conjugated proteins or oligonucleotides with small molecules (dyes or drugs) or nanomaterials (by succinimidyl ester/carboxyl/thiol and amine reactions, biotin and avidin/streptavidin interaction, click chemistry) and purified by HPLC, SEC and dialysis, and then used for diagnosis and therapeutic applications inside/outside the cancer cells.

3. Improved ligand biostability to avoid enzyme digestion and binding affinity to its target thrombin protein, PDGF and VEGF protein by designing and modifying DNA aptamer probes with Locked Nucleic Acids and 2`-o-Methyl bases, and evaluated the binding interaction by fluorescence anisotropy.

4. Developed enzymatic signal amplification assay (HRP), enzymatic digestion assay (DNase, RNase, protease, protease inhibitor), ligand binding kinetics (with target mRNA or protein, Kon, Koff, Kd determination), stability assay, DNA/RNA hybridization, DNA-based amplification assay, cell staining (nucleus staining by DAPI, endosome staining by Transferrin) and cell proliferation assay (MTT, PI for delivery system cytotoxicity and drug efficacy evaluation).

5. Conjugated pyrene dye onto poly-lysine to study pH triggered signal amplification and secondary structure switch by Circular Dichroism (CD) and fluorometer.

6. Designed and synthesized oligonucleotides by DNA synthesizer (solid phase synthesis), and then did on-column and off-column coupling, purified them by HPLC (RP, SEC, IEX) and gel electrophoresis.

7. Transfected GFP or luciferase plasmid into cells to evaluate the knockdown efficiency of the novelly designed siRNA delivery vehicle.

Immobilized polymer surface with DNA aptamer as the substrates for SELDI MS to selectively detect target cocaine molecules.

8. Designed and immobilized modified DNA probes onto the glass surface to improve gene detection sensitivity in the lysed cells.

9. Designed PDMS microfluidic channel, immobilized ligands on the surface to selectively capture and separate cancer cells from human whole blood.

10. Lysed mammalian cells to collect both nuclear and cytosolic fractions.

11. Separated and identified reaction products by GC/MS, MALDI/MS and NMR.

Gene Related Work

1. Studied potential secondary structures of mRNA sequences and selected accessible regions for mRNA detection.

2. Designed and selected stable oligonucleotide probes for gene detection by monitoring melting temperatures with RT-PCR.

3. Developed a biostable oligonucleotide probes for intracellular real-time gene monitoring, and evaluated systems with fluorescence spectrometry and confocal microscopy.

Nanotechnology-based delivery system for diagnosis and therapy

1. Developed a novel lipid-based aptamer micelle as an efficient dye/drug delivery vehicle to improve ligands’ binding ability for cancer in vitro diagnosis and therapy.

2. Developed an mRNA/gene detection sensor by complexing with single-walled carbon nanotubes for efficient cellular delivery and great biostability inside cancer cells.

3. Developed dye-doped lipid-based aptamer-micelles to simulate drug releasing process inside cells.

4. Synthesized and conjugated various nanoparticles, including gold NPs, iron oxide magnetic NPs, liposome and silica NPs; used gold NPs for colormetric detection and used magnetic NPs for cell/protein enrichment, used dye labeled liposomes for nanoparticle fusion studies, and used silica NPs as gene delivery vectors.

Technical Skills

1. HPLC (RPC, IEX, SEC, AFC, HILIC) with various detectors (UV, fluorescence, RI, CAD), UPLC, GC, (Pyrolysis) GC/MS, MALDI/MS, CE, IC, GPC(tetra detectors: RI, Light Scattering, viscometer and PDA), NIR-UV-vis, Fluorescence Spectrometry, FTIR, CD, DSC, TGA, CD, TD-NMR, Microplate Reader, SEM, ESEM, TEM, optical/fluorescence/confocal microscopy, Titration, zeta potential, dynamic light scattering (DLS), and Lab automation.

2. Oligonucleotide synthesis, oligonucleotide/protein/drug-Nanoparticle conjugations, Assay Development, statistical data analysis, flow cytometry, Gel Electrophoresis, SDS-PAGE, ELISA, PCR, RT-PCR, surface immobilization and characterization, lipid/micelle construction, nanoparticle synthesis, partical sizing, cell culture/transfection/staining.

Representative Publications (Total: 24; Number of citations: over 1000; H index : 15)

1. Huang J.; Wu, Y.; Chen, Y.; Zhu Z.; Yang X.; Yang C.J.; Wang K.; Tan W., Pyrene-Excimer Probes Based on the Hybridization Chain Reaction for the Detection of Nucleic Acids in Complex Biological Fluids. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2011, 50(2), 401-404.

2. Wu, Y.; Sefan, K.; Liu, L.; Wang, R.; Tan, W., Aptamer Micelle as an Efficient Detection/Delivery Vehicle with Selectivity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2010, 107, 5-10.

3. Wu, Y.; Phillips, J.; Liu, H.; Yang, R.; Tan, W., Carbon Nanotubes Protect DNA Strands during Cellular Delivery. ACS Nano 2008, 2, 2023-2028.

4. Wu, Y.; Yang, C. J.; Moroz, L.; Tan, W., Nucleic Acid Beacons for Long-term Real-time Intracellular Monitoring. Analytical Chemistry 2008, 80, 3025-3028.

5. Yao, G.; Wu, Y.; Schiavone D.L.; Wang, L.; Tan, W., FloDots for Bioimaging and Bioanalysis. Particulate Systems in Nano and Biotechnologies 2006, 255-279

6. Wu, S.; Wu, Y. ; Kang, Q.; Zhang, H.; Long, L.; Zheng, Z.; Huang, R.; Zheng, L., Chiral symmetry breaking by chemically manipulating statistical fluctuation in crystallization. Angewandte Chemie-International Edition 2007, 46, 8475-8479.

7. Wu, Y.; Long, L.; Huang, R.; Zheng, L.; Ng, S., Diaquaiminodiacetatonickel(II). Acta Crystallographica Section E-Structure Reports Online 2003, 59, M390-M392.

Patent

1. Tan, Weihong; Haipeng, Liu; Wu, Yanrong. Self-assembling micelles containing nucleic acids and their use in the delivery of therapeutic nucleic acids. PCT Int. Appl. 2010, 111, CODEN: PIXXD2 WO 201*******.

Selective Professional Conference

1. Cheryl Beste, Ellen Wu, Novel Instrumentations Advance Structure Elucidation, ACS North Carolina poster night, 2012

2. Yanrong Wu, Weihong Tan, Aptamer Micelles Improve Binding Ability, 59th Pittsburgh Conference, Chicago, Illinois, 2009.

3. Yanrong Wu, Weihong Tan, Carbon Nanotubes Make Molecular Beacon Biostable, 58th Pittsburgh Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2008.

4. Yanrong Wu, Weihong Tan, Optimization of Locked Nucleic Acid Molecular Beacons for mRNA Imaging inside Neuron Cells, 57th Pittsburgh Conference, Chicago, Illinois, 2007.

5. Yanrong Wu, Weihong Tan, Nanoparticles for Effective Gene Delivery, 56th Pittsburgh Conference, Orlando, Florida, poster presentation, 2006.

6. Yanrong Wu, Weihong Tan, Aptamer Micelle as an Efficient Detection/Delivery Vehicle with Selectivity, 238th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS)Washington, DC, 2009.

Social Activities & Leadership

1. Toastmaster Club Member

2. Volunteer in Chinese Culture Awareness Activities

3. American Chemical Society

4. Analytical Project Leader & New Employee Trainer, Syngenta Crop Protection.

5. Group Manager, university of Florida. Responsible for general lab supplies purchase, group affairs and party organization.

6. Chair of Student Association, Collage of Material & Engineering, 1999-2001.

7. Chair of Environment Protection Association, Huaqiao University, 2000-2001.

Academic Honors

University of Florida

Procter & Gamble Research Award, 2009

Roger G. Bates Fellowships, 2009

Crow-Stasch Writing Awards, 2008

Xiamen University

Excellent Student, 2004

Baolong scholarship, 2003

Guanghua Scholarship, 2003

Huaqiao University

Excellent Young Student, Quanzhou City, 2000

Excellent Student, Fujian province, 2000

University Scholars (three times), 1997-2000

Excellent Student, 1998-1999

Silver Metal in Mathematics Contest, 1998

ZHUANG Caifang scholarship, 1997

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