Science writers, communicators, media, training, and public relations
Watching the processes of life: 2017 Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year
Professor Dayong Jin
We need new ways to detect the early stages of disease and cancer. Dayong Jin believes the key is for physicists, biologists, engineers and doctors to work together. And that’s what he’s doing with his team at the University of Technology, Sydney.
He has created new kinds of microscopes that allow us to watch molecules at work inside living cells. Using quantum dots, lasers, nanocrystals and other technologies, these microscopes will allow us to watch the inner workings of our immune system, see how bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, and to find one cancer cell amongst millions of healthy cells. He’s working with Olympus to commercialise his inventions.
But his personal vision goes much further.
He believes that his technologies will enable portable, easy to use devices to detect the first signs of disease, evidence of drugs, or of toxins in food and the environment. With the support of the Australian Research Council he’s working to give Australian companies the opportunity to create these new devices.
For creating new technologies to image the processes of life, Professor Dayong Jin receives the $50,000 Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year.
Dayong Jin brings a physicist’s perspective to the challenges of biology. He says that biology doesn’t have the tools it needs to watch the processes of life at work. And until we have that then we’ll struggle to develop fast, cost-effective ways to monitor our health and detect issues before they become critical.
“Biologists want to be able to watch and follow individual molecules in living cells. Then they could see exactly what’s happening step by step,” Dayong says. And clinicians need to find a needle in a haystack – one infected or cancerous cell amongst millions of health cells.
He compares the change to the transformation of navigation. “It’s much easier to drive with GPS and a smartphone map, than with traditional paper maps. And you can drop into street view and see the details. Biologists are still working with ‘paper maps’,” he says.
Two major obstacles stood in the way of creating microscopes that can follow live molecules.
Conventional microscopes are limited to half the wavelength of light or around 0.2 micrometres. The winners of the 2014 Nobel Prize for Chemistry smashed that limit with the help of fluorescent molecules. That led to laser-driven ‘nanoscopes’. But these super-resolution microscopes are too hot to image living samples, and too expensive to be developed into low-cost diagnostic devices.
Starting at Macquarie University and now at the University of Technology Sydney, Dayong has created a series of patented photonic technologies that will enable us to view the processes of life, and to create low cost diagnostic devices.
His inventions include new kinds of fluorescent molecules that avoid the need for high-powered lasers to view samples, including:
Super dots, the world’s brightest molecular probe for single molecule detection and three times more sensitive than the previous quantum dots
Tau dots, which flash at different rates allowing information to be collected faster
Hyper dots that can respond to stimulation with optical, magnetic and chemical responses.
Now Dayong has put these and other technologies together to develop a new kind of microscope in collaboration with Olympus. He has shown he can find one diseased cell in a million healthy cells.
Dayong is also working with Minomic International, a Sydney-based company on the detection of prostate cancer cells. That work has led to a device for routine screening of cancers using urine samples instead of biopsies.
His technologies have much wider application across diagnosis, invisible anti-counterfeiting inks, and even an optical safety system for motorcyclists.
Dayong now also leads an industry research hub which he hopes will enable Australian companies to commercialise these new technologies.
Career profile, Distinguished Professor Dayong Jin
Qualifications
2007 PhD (Physics), Macquarie University
2002 Bachelor of Science, Liaoning Normal University, China
Career highlights
2017 John Booker Medal in Engineering Science, Australian Academy of Science
2017 The Australian nominee for the APEC Science Prize for Innovation, Research and Education (ASPIRE), the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science
2016–2021 Director, ARC Industry Transformation Research Hub for Integrated Device for End-user Analysis at Low-levels (ARC IDEAL Research Hub) with funding of $6.8 million
2016 Knowledge Nation 100, Knowledge Society and the Office of the Chief Scientist
2015 Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Excellence in Interdisciplinary Scientific Research
2015 Founding Director, Initiative for Biomedical Materials & Devices (IBMD), University of Technogy of Sydney
2015 ARC Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities Grant
2014 Visiting Professor, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Peking University
2014 ARC Linkage Grant
2014 Commercialisation Australia Entrepreneur Grant
2013 Chief Investigator, ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale Bio Photonics Grant
2013–2017 ARC Future Fellow
2013 Excellence in Research Award, Macquarie University
2013 ARC Linkage Grant
2010 Early Career Researcher of the Year, Macquarie University
2010 ARC Australian Postdoctoral Fellow, and ARC International Collaboration Award
2007 ISAC Scholar Award (first Australian recipient), International Society for Analytical Cytology
2006 Postgraduate Award and Innovation Award, Macquarie University
Image: Dayong Jin (Credit: Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science/WildBear)
