Contact Professor Zhugen Yang

Areas of expertise

  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Biosensors & Diagnostics
  • Environment and Health
  • Food Safety
  • Instrumentation, Sensors and Measurement Science
  • Monitoring and Environmental Informatics
  • Water Science and Engineering

Background

Zhugen Yang is a Professor of Biosensing and Environmental Health, leading a UKCRIC-funded Advanced Sensors Laboratory for water-environment-health-nexus since 2019. He joined 老司机福利社 as a Lecturer in 2019 and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2022 and Professor in 2023, after being a Lecturer at the University of Glasgow in 2018. He has received three prestigious Fellowships/awards for different career stages, including the Leverhulme Research Leadership Awards (2023-2028), UKRI NERC Personal Fellowship (2018-2021), and EU Marie Curie Fellow (2013-15). He completed his postdoc at the University of Cambridge, and was an EU Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Bath, after receiving his PhD at the University of Lyon (Ecole Centrale) in France, MSc (Sun Yat-sen University, SYSU), and BEng (Harbin Institute of Technology, HIT) in China.

His research has been sponsored by a variety of sources (>拢10m, PI on 拢6m) including UKRI (EPSRC, NERC, BBSRC, MRC), The Leverhulme Trust, The Royal Society, The Royal Academy of Engineering, industrial and governmental sectors (e.g., UKHSA, Home Office, Defra, EA), leading to over 80 referred articles (including Nature Water, Cell Res Phys Sci, PNAS, Nature Communications, ACS Nano, Adv Fucnt Mat, ES&T, Water Res, H=39 as of 6/2024), several UK/PCT patents and many invited/keynote talks at international conferences. The key technology around low-cost sensors has led to a spin-out company at Cranfield.

Dr Yang is recognized globally for his work in developing a low-cost origami paper device for the rapid diagnosis of infectious diseases, especially recently on the rapid testing of sewage for early warning of COVID-19 within the population, which is part of the UK National Wastewater Surveillance Program (N-WESP). His work has received many national and international awards including a recent James J Morgan ACS ES&T Early Career Award- Honorable Mention, featuring in Science, and numerous media coverages (e.g., BBC News, The Washington Post, etc.). The origami-paper device is currently featured at the London Science Museum.

Dr Yang serves as editor of a special issue for TrAC -Trends in Analytical Chemistry (IF 14.9), Chemosphere (IF 8.9), Associate Editor for Heliyon Chemical Engineering, Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology (IF 6.0); Editorial Advisory/ECR Board for Advance in Sample Preparation (Elsevier), Environment Science & Ecotechnology (Elsevier IF 9.8), co-chairing/session-chairing the international conference. He leads a working group on environmental sensors and wastewater surveillance sponsored by UKRI BBSRC EBNet and led organising the international conference TTW6 in Oxford in 2023.

We now have the opening: 3 PDRAs (11 years FTE, two filled ) and 2 fully-funded PhD studentships on sensing wastewater for public health funded by Leverhulme Trust Research Leadership Awards and NERC.

PDRA: https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DFJ243/research-assistant-or-research-fellow

PhDs (Deadline 23 July): https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DHU905/phd-studentship-sensing-wastewater-for-real-time-public-health

Research opportunities

Dr Yang is currently leading the UKCRIC-funded Advanced Sensors Laboratory at 老司机福利社. His multidisciplinary team on Advanced Sensors for Water-Environment-Health nexus focuses on the development of low-cost, rapid, and point-of-use sensors and devices for environmental science (e.g. microbial contamination in drinking water), public health (e.g. infectious diseases including Sars-CoV-2, illicit drugs), and biomedical diagnostics (e.g. infectious disease and cancer). The recently funded projects are listed below with a research protofolio over 拢10m. The group has 6 PhD students, 2 PDRAs, 2 academic visitor, with the support of lab technician and admin collegue.

We now have the opening: 3 PDRAs (11 years FTE, two filled ) and 2 fully-funded PhD studentships on sensing wastewater for public health funded by Leverhulme Trust Research Leadership Awards and UKRI-NERC.

- PDRA: https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DFJ243/research-assistant-or-research-fellow

- PhDs (Deadline 23 July): https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DHU905/phd-studentship-sensing-wastewater-for-real-time-public-health

We are consistently recruiting talented researchers/students in the areas of sensors, microfluidics, paper-based devices, molecular diagnostics, water quality, environmental health, and wastewater-based epidemiology, please get in touch for discussion on the potential funding opportunities. We typically recruit 2-3 students each year to ensure quality supervision. Please be in touch for discussion on self-funded or third-source funded opportunities.

- Researcher students:

[1] PhD candidates (3-4 years);

[2] MSc by Research (12 months lab work to get MSc, optional to extend two years more for a PhD degree;

[3] Visiting research students/placements/internships (no less than three months, ideally 6 months or more)

- Postdoc, Fellowship, and Visiting Scholar:

We are always keen to support talented scientists as Research Fellows, and visiting Fellows/scholars to apply for a third funding source (e.g. CSC, Leverhulme Trust, Royal Commission 1851, UK Newton fellowship, EU Marie Curie Fellowship) to explore exciting scientific research.

Current Projects

1. UKRI-BBSRC, Environmental Biotechnology Innovation Centre (EBIC), BB/Y008332/1, (Co-I & Theme Leader on Biosensors, 2024-2029, 拢13.2M;

2. UKRI-NERC, Developing paper 'origami' eDNA sensors for real-time public surveillance of invasive species, NE/Z503538/1 (Co-I , 2024-2027, 拢0.5M);

3. UKRI-Innovate UK, AAKTP THE SOURCE PLUS (TSP) FoodSAFE: African Centre of Excellence for Phytosanitary Standards and Food Safety (Co-I, 2024-2026)

4. UK Leverhulme Trust Research Leadership Award, Sensing wastewater for real-time public health (PI, 2023-2028, 拢1.9M);

5. UKRI-BBSRC, Anglo-Canadian Collaboration on Antimicrobial resistance (ACCAMR), BB/X012840/1 (PI, 2023-2025, 拢150k) with Universities of Toronto, McGill, Calgary, Laval;

6. UKRI-EPSRC WISER CDT, Paper microfluidics and electrochemical sensors for disinfection process (PI, 2023-2027);

7. UKRI-MRC IAA, Origami paper device for point of care diagnosis of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (PI in Cranfield, 2023-2024);

8. UK Royal Society Research Grants, Understanding AMR transmission in the environment using the digital molecular method (PI, 2023-2024, RGS\R1\231032);

9. UK Research England, HEIF Spinning Out Novel Pathogen Analysis Technology - Phase 2 (PI, 2023-2024);

10. UK Research England, Single Cell sequencing for wastewater surveillance (PI, 2023-2024)

11. UK Royal Society, Development of microfluidic paper-based biochips for point-of-care detection of multiple cytokines (PI, 2022-2024, IEC\NSFC\211234);

12. UK Royal Academy of Engineering Frontier Follow-on scheme, Low-cost paper-based biosensors for rapid monitoring of water quality in LMICs, (PI, 2020 - 2024, FF\1920\1\36, 拢310,286); in collaboration with Federal University Lafia, Nigeria & Cameron;

Completed Projects

1. UKRI-Research England, HEIF Spinning Out Novel Pathogen Analysis Technology (PI, 2023-2023);

2. UKRI-BBSRC Proof-of-Concept, CRISPR/Cas-enabled paper-based sensors for rapid monitoring of antimicrobial resistance (PI, 2022-2023)

3. UKRI-NERC, National COVID-19 Wastewater Epidemiology Surveillance Programme (Co-I, 2020 - 2021, NE/V010441/1, 拢791,191).

4. UK NERC NPIF Innovation Fellowship, Lab-on-a-Paper for Point-of-Use Microbial Source Tracking (PI, 2018 - 2021, NE/R013349/1, 拢537,033);

5. UKRI-BBSRC, Paper-based platform for on site, rapid, and multiplexed DNA-based pathogen detection in aquaculture, Co-I, 2018 - 2020, BB/S004335/1, 拢200,000)

6. UK Home Office, Microwave for on-site extraction nucleic acid (PI in Cranfield, 2023-2023)

7. UKRI-EPSRC-DTP, Diagnostic evaluation of removal of protozoan oocysts (2020-2023)

8. UK Home Office/Health Security Agency, Post-pandemic sensors for wastewater, PI, 2021-2023

9. UK Home Office/ACE, Automation for wastewater surveillance, 2021-2022 (Co-I, 拢247,620)

10. UK DEFRA -Deloitte MCS Limited, Exploring the development opportunities around the Covid19 WasteWater Sampling, (Co-I, 2022-2022)

11. Africa Honey Consortium, Establishing a rapid testing system for contaminant detection in African honey (Co-I,2021-2022)

12. UKRI-Research England, Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF), Commercialization of origami-paper device for wastewater surveillance, (PI, 2022-2022);

13. UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) - Deloitte MCS Limited, Understanding exposure routes and pathways of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the environment (PI, 2022-2022);

14. UKRI-Research England via 老司机福利社, Smart Living Grand Challenges, (Co-I, 2020-2022);

15. UK Home Office/ACE, Paper-origami device for rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater, (PI, 2021-2022);

16. Anglian Water, Rapid Covid sensors, PI, 2020-2021;

17. Industry partner, Automatic detection for sewage virus, PI, 2020-2022;

18. UK Royal Academy of Engineering, Low-cost and rapid water sensors for LMICs (PI, 2018 - 2020, FoDSF\1819\1\8); with Federal University Lafia

19. UK Royal Academy of Engineering, Rapid Sepsis Diagnostics (Co-I, 2018 - 2019, FoEST1819\T6\4); with Tran Hung Dao University Hospital, Vietnam;

20. UK Scottish Research Partnership in Engineering, Rapid monitoring of water contamination using cost-effective sensors, (PI, 2018 - 2019, PECRE1819/05)

Current activities

Dr Yang serves as Senior Editor for Critical Insights of Environmental Science and Technology, editor of a special issue for TrAC -Trends in Analytical Chemistry (IF 14.9), Chemosphere (IF 8.9), Associate Editor for Heliyon Chemical Engineering, Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology (IF 6.0); Editorial Advisory/ECR Board for Advance in Sample Preparation (Elsevier), Environment Science & Ecotechnology (Elsevier IF 9.8), co-chairing/session-chairing the international conference.

He leads a working group on environmental sensors and wastewater surveillance sponsored by UKRI BBSRC EBNet and led organising the international conference TTW6 in Oxford in 2023.

Editorship & Editorial Board (selected)

2024- Senior Editor, Critical Insights in Environmental Science and Technology, Taylors and Francis

2023- Associate Editor, Heliyon, Chemical Engineering Section, Cell Press

2021-2 Editor of Special Issue, TrAC-Trends in Analytical Chemistry (IF 14.9), Elsevier

2021-2 Editor of Special Issue, Chemosphere (IF 7.1), Elsevier

2021- Editorial Advisory Board, Advance in Sample Preparation, Elsevier;

2021- ECR Editorial Advisory Board, Environment Science & Ecotechnology, Elsevier

Fellowship, Awards & Honours (Selected)

2022 Research Leadership Awards (once every three years), Leverhulme Trust, UK

2022 Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), UK

2021 James J Morgan ES&T Early Career Award- Honorable Mention, ACS, USA

2020 Outstanding presentation for Early Career Research at UK EBNet, UKRI

2019 Outstanding academic presentation at UK-CARE, UK

2018 UK NERC NPIF Independent Personal Fellowship, UK

2015 Most Accessed Article, Analyst, Royal Society of Chemistry, UK

2014 Multiple Travel grant from UK Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), British Council etc;

2013 EU Marie Curie Fellowship, EU FP7;

2011 Doctoral Travel grant for international conference, University of Lyon, France;

Clients

- UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) including EPSRC, NERC, BBSRC, MRC

- The Leverhulme Trust

- The Royal Society

- The Royal Academy of Engineering

- Home Office

- Environment Agency

- UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)

- Scottish Partnership of Research Funds

- Scottish Water

- Anglian Water, and other industry;

Publications

Articles In Journals

Conference Papers

Books