Qiang Feng, PhD

Department of Biomedical Engineering
Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

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6000 Harry Hines Blvd, NL7.120

Dallas, Texas, 75235

Dr. Qiang Feng received his Bachelor’s (2012) and Master’s (2014) degrees in Pharmaceutics from Peking University and earned his Ph.D. (2017) in Nanoscience and Technology from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He completed his postdoctoral training with Professor Jinming Gao at UT Southwestern, where he is now an Assistant Professor.

Dr. Feng’s research focuses on the abundance and immunological roles of key metabolites in the tumor microenvironment. By developing multi-chromatic pH nanosensors with high spatial resolution, he uncovered the presence of severely polarized extracellular acidity (pHe < 5.3) surrounding tumor cells—over an order of magnitude more extreme than previously recognized (Nature Biomedical Engineering, 2024). Integrating cancer biology, clinical insights, and immune metabolism, he demonstrated that this severe acidity acts as a potent but underappreciated immunosuppressor, while sodium lactate, its anionic counterpart, has immune-protective properties (Nature Communications, 2022). These findings led to the development of acidity-targeted immunotherapy nanodrugs and metabolism-regulating immune adjuvants.

To date, Dr. Feng has authored over 30 peer-reviewed publications in leading journals, with more than 4,000 citations, and holds three patents for his discoveries.

news

Jul 19, 2025 New domain name registered!
Jul 09, 2025 New academic page launched! :sparkles: :smile:

latest posts

Jul 08, 2025 A Microscopic Secret Tumors Tried to Keep
Jul 06, 2025 Remove the Barriers

selected publications

2024

  1. Nature BME
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    Severely polarized extracellular acidity around tumour cells
    Qiang Feng, Zachary Bennett, Anthony Grichuk, Raymundo Pantoja, Tongyi Huang, Brandon Faubert, Gang Huang, Mingyi Chen, Ralph J DeBerardinis, Baran D Sumer, and Jinming Gao
    Nature Biomedical Engineering, 2024
    DOI

2022

  1. Nature Comm
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    Lactate increases stemness of CD8+ T cells to augment anti-tumor immunity
    Qiang Feng, Zhida Liu, Xuexin Yu, Tongyi Huang, Jiahui Chen, Jian Wang, Jonathan Wilhelm, Suxin Li, Jiwon Song, Wei Li, Zhichen Sun, Baran D Sumer, Bo Li, Yang-Xin Fu, and Jinming Gao
    Nature communications, 2022
    Qiang Feng, Zhida Liu and Xuexin Yu contributed equally
    DOI

2021

  1. AHM
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    Tumor-Targeted Inhibition of Monocarboxylate Transporter 1 Improves T-Cell Immunotherapy of Solid Tumors
    Tongyi Huang, Qiang Feng, Zhaohui Wang, Wei Li, Zhichen Sun, Jonathan Wilhelm, Gang Huang, Tram Vo, Baran D Sumer, and Jinming Gao
    Advanced Healthcare Materials, 2021
    Tongyi Huang and Qiang Feng contributed equally
    DOI

2019

  1. Accounts
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    Transistor-like Ultra-pH-Sensitive Polymeric Nanoparticles
    Qiang Feng, Jonathan Wilhelm, and Jinming Gao
    Accounts of chemical research, 2019
    DOI

2017

  1. Small
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    One-Step Microfluidic Synthesis of Nanocomplex with Tunable Rigidity and Acid-Switchable Surface Charge for Overcoming Drug Resistance
    Qiang Feng, Jianping Liu, Xuanyu Li, Qinghua Chen, Jiashu Sun, Xinghua Shi, Baoquan Ding, Haijun Yu, Yaping Li, and Xingyu Jiang
    Small, 2017
    Qiang Feng and Jianping Liu contributed equally
    DOI

2015

  1. Angew
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    Microfluidic synthesis of rigid nanovesicles for hydrophilic reagents delivery
    Lu Zhang, Qiang Feng, Jiuling Wang, Jiashu Sun, Xinghua Shi, and Xingyu Jiang
    Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2015
    Lu Zhang, Qiang Feng, and Jiuling Wang contributed equally
    DOI