Pengkun Zhao

Pengkun Zhao is a researcher at the Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials (University of Groningen) and affiliated with the DWI—Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials (Aachen, Germany). His work focuses on mechanical force-driven biochemical systems.

• Research Interests: Protein activity regulation using ultrasound, aptamer-based enzyme inhibition, mechanochemistry in biomedical applications, and reversible nanomaterial-protein hybrid systems.
• Grants: Funded by the European Union's ERC Advanced Grant SUPRABIOTICS and the China Scholarship Council.

Scientific Contributions: Demonstrated ultrasound-induced activation of thrombin via polyaptamer cleavage and split aptamer-functionalized gold nanoparticles. These systems enable spatiotemporal control of enzymatic activity, with implications for sonogenetic therapies.