Dr. Peng Zhang

CV

Dr. Zhang obtained his Ph.D. in Bioinorganic Chemistry from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2013. He joined the University of Birmingham as a senior research fellow in 2018, following his position as an associate professor at the Institute of High Energy Physics (CAS) since 2015. Dr Zhang’s research sits in the interface between environmental science, toxicology, chemistry, nanoscience and agriculture. Specifically, he studies the environmental chemistry and toxicology of heavy metals and emerging contaminants such as nanomaterials and microplastics. He also has expertise in developing labelling techniques for tracing contaminants in environment and biota. He has particular interest in developing nanotechnology-enabled solutions to improve plant growth and increase use efficiency of agrochemicals. Dr Zhang received 2022 ACS James J Morgan Early Career Award for leading the rise and development of nano-enabled sustainable agriculture.

Dr Zhang has published over 90 papers in journals including Nature Protocols, Nature Plants, Nature Communications, PNAS, Nano Today, ACS Nano, ES&T, ES&T Letters. He has served as editors and in the editorial board for several journals such as The Innovation, Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, Frontiers in Plant Science, Frontiers in Sustainable Food System, guest editor of Environmental Pollution. He is a full member of Society of Toxicology (USA).

Selected Publications

• Peng Zhang*, Zhiling Guo, Sami Ullah, Georgia Melagraki, Afantitis Antreas, Iseult Lynch. Nanotechnology and Artificial Intelligence to Enable Sustainable and Precision Agriculture. Nature Plants 2021, 7, 864-876. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41477-021-00946-6
• Zhiling Guo*, Peng Zhang*, Andrew J Chetwynd, Swaroop Chaborty, Christopher stark, Fazel Abdolahpur Monikh, Rachel Smith, Sandra Wilson, Iseult Lynch, Eugenia Valsami-Jones*. Biotransformation modulates the penetration of metallic nanomaterials across the blood brain barrier. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A 2021, 118, e2105245118. (Front Cover) https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2105245118
• Peng Zhang*, Superb Misra, Zhiling Guo, Mark Rehkämper, Eugenia Valsami-Jones. Stable isotope labelling of metal/metal oxide nanomaterials for environmental and biological tracing. Nature Protocols2019, 14, 2878-2899. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41596-019-0205-z
• Peng Zhang*, Zhiling Guo, Fazel Abdolahpur Monikh, Iseult Lynch, Eugenia Valsami-Jones, Zhiyong Zhang. Growing Rice (Oryza sativa) Aerobically Reduces Phytotoxicity, Uptake, and Transformation of CeO₂ Nanoparticles. Environmental Science & Technology 2021, 55, 8654-8664. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.0c08813
• Yaoyao Wang^#, Peng Zhang^#,*, Mingshu Li, Zhiling Guo, Sami Ullah, Yukui Rui*, Iseult Lynch. Alleviation of Nitrogen Stress in Rice (Oryza sativa) by ceria nanoparticles. Environmental Science: Nano 2020, 7, 2930-2940. (Front cover, HOT article) https://doi.org/10.1039/D0EN00757A

FRIAS Research Project

Nano-enabled Strategies to Enhance Plant Tolerance to Climate Stress (NanoEnPlant)

Crop yield is mainly influenced by stresses caused by climatic factors, agronomic factors, pests and nutrient availability in the soil. Developing tolerant cultivars using genetic manipulation is the most important strategy currently to cope with these stresses; however, the overall progress is slow and complete success is not yet achieved due to the difficulty in identifying key genetic determinants of stress tolerance. A complementary approach is the use of nanotechnology to promote plant growth by mitigating stress-induced signalling pathways, and thus increase crop yields, although its full potential has not yet been discovered and the underlying mechanisms by which NMs enhance plant growth, provide resistance to pathogens and more are not yet fully understood which hampers its progress and widespread adoption. The vision of Project NanoEnPlant is to find new, simple, and robust strategies to enhance plant tolerance to stress using nano-enabled approaches, and to elaborate the chemical and biological fundamentals (mechanisms) underpinning the plant responses to the nanomaterials in order to ensure regulatory and consumer confidence.