Wei Chen

Director and
Stephenson Chair and Professor

Email: wei-r-chen@ou.edu
Phone: (405) 325-2144
Office: Gallogly Hall (GLG) 105

Education
Postdoctoral Fellow (1989)
University of Oregon
Ph.D. High Energy Particle Physics (1988)
University of Oregon
M.S. Physics (1984)
University of Oregon
B.S. Physics (1982)
Shandong University, China

Research Focus

Local intervention-based immunotherapy for cancer
Prophylactic nasal agents against viral infections
Mechanism of local treatment induced systemic antitumor immune responses
Nanotechnology-based immunotherapy for cancer treatment

Selected Publications

Yong Li, Jacob Paul Adams, Jingxuan Yang, Abigael P Williams, Min Li, Joanne Tuohy, Wei R Chen, “Glycosylated Chitosan Inhibits Pancreatic Cancer Metastasis by Blocking the Caveolin Signaling Pathway”, Cancers 18(9), 1473, 2026 (doi.org/10.3390/cancers18091473).
Xiuhui Shi, Alex X Arreola, Zhijun Zhou, Jingxuan Yang, Mingyang Liu, Yang Cai, Yu Ren, Hao Yuan, Qun Chen, Xinjie Chen, Xinyu Yang, Yimei Meng, Jingyi Wang, Wenyi Luo, Michael C Rudolph, Rohan Varshney, Kar-Ming Fung, Chao Xu, Wei R Chen, Michael S Bronze, Lei Zheng, Yi-Ping Li, Courtney W Houchen, Yuqing Zhang, Min Li, “Tumor-immune-neural circuit disrupts energy homeostasis in cancer cachexia”, Cancer Cell, 44, 1-16, 2026 (DOI: 10.1016/j.ccell.2026.01.014).
Jacob P. Adams, Luke Pauli, Lin Wang, Trisha Valerio, Coline Furrer, Min Li, Naoko Takebe, Joanne Tuohy, and Wei R. Chen, “Synergy between photonics and biological approaches – A review of combination therapies for cancer treatment”, APL Bioengineering 9, 041503, 2025 (https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0252574).
Kaili Liu, Ashley R. Hoover, Yuanhong Sun, Trisha I. Valero, Coline Furrer, Jacob Adams, Lin Wang, Abdul Rafeh Naqash, and Wei R. Chen, “Anti-tumor effects on tumor-infiltrating natural killer cells by localized ablative immunotherapy and immune checkpoint inhibitors: An integrated and comparative study using scRNAseq analysis”, Cancer Letters, 627, 217825, 2025 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.canlet.2025.217825).
Kaili Liu, Ashley R. Hoover, Lin Wang, Yuanhong Sun, Trisha I. Valerio, Coline Furrer, Jacob Adams, Jingxuan Yang, Min Li, Wei R. Chen, “Localized ablative immunotherapy enhances antitumor immunity by modulating the transcriptome of tumor-infiltrating Gamma delta T cells”, Cancer Letters, 604, 217267, 2024. (doi.org/10.1016/j.canlet.2024.217267)
Ashley R. Hoover, Kaili Liu, Coline Furrer, Samuel Siu Kit Lam, David W. Anderson, Zhijun Zhou, Jingxuan Yang, Chun Fung Wong, Alexandra D. Medcalf, Xiao-Hong Sun, Tomas Hode, Lu Alleruzzo, Abby Delawder, Joseph Raker, Ghainaa Abousleiman, Trisha I. Valerio, Yuanhong Sun, James F. Papin, Min Li, and Wei R. Chen, “N-Dihydrogalactochitosan Drives Conventional and Alternative Activations of STING to Synergize Type I IFN and IL-1β Productions for Antitumor Immunity”, Advanced Functional Materials, 2410079, 2024. (DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202410079)
Lin Wang, Vinit Sheth, Kaili Liu, Prasanta Panja, Alex N. Frickenstein, Yuxin He, Wen Yang, Abigail G. Thomas, Mohammad H. Jamei, Jeesoo Park, Shanxin Lyu, Nathan D. Donahue, Wei R. Chen, Resham Bhattacharya, Priyabrata Mukherjee, and Stefan Wilhelm, “Primary Human Breast Cancer-Associated Endothelial Cells Favor Interactions with Nanomedicines”, Advanced Materials, 2403986, 2024 (DOI: 10.1002/adma.202403986)
Ashley R. Hoover, Sunil Moore, Kaili Liu, Conner West, Trisha I. Valerio, Coline L Furrer, Jacob P. Adams, Ningli Yu, Crystal Villalva, Amit Kumar, Lu Alleruzzo, Samuel S.K. Lam, Tomas Hode, James F. Papin, Wei R. Chen, “N-dihydrogalactochitosan serves as an effective mucosal adjuvant for intranasal vaccine in combination with recombinant viral proteins against respiratory infection”, Acta Biomaterialia, 175, 279-292, 2024. (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actbio.2023.12.039)
Christopher M. Weiss, Hongwei Liu, Erin E. Ball, Ashley R. Hoover, Talia S. Wong, Chun Fung Wong, Samuel Lam, Tomas Hode, M. Kevin Keel, Richard M. Levenson, Wei R. Chen, and Lark L. Coffey, “N-dihydrogalactochitosan reduces mortality in a lethal mouse model of SARS-CoV-2”, PLOS One, 18(8): e0289139, 2023. (doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0289139)
Ashley R. Hoover, Saghar Kaabinejadian, Jason R. Krawic, Xiao-Hong Sun, Abdul Rafeh Naqash, Qian Yin, Xinbo Yang, K. Christopher Garcia, Mark M. Davis, William H. Hildebrand and Wei R. Chen, “Localized Ablative Immunotherapy Drives de novo CD8+ T cell Responses to Poorly Immunogenic Tumors”, Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 2022, 10:e004973. (doi:10.1136/jitc-2022-004973).
Ashley R. Hoover, Kaili Liu, Christa I. DeVette, Jason R. Krawic, Alexandra D. Medcalf, Connor L. West, Tomas Hode, Samuel S.K. Lam, Alana L. Welm, Xiao-Hong Sun, William H. Hildebrand, and Wei R. Chen. “Single-cell RNA sequencing reveals localized tumor ablation and intratumoral immunostimulant delivery potentiate T cell mediated tumor killing”, Clinical and Translational Medicine, 12(7), e937, 2022 (https://doi.org/10.1002/ctm2.937).
Jinxing Liu, Chong Zhao, Wei R. Chen, and Benqing Zhou, “Recent progress in two-dimensional nanomaterials for cancer treatment and imaging”, Coordination Chemistry Reviews, 469, 214654, 2022 (doi.org/10.1016/j.ccr.2022.214654)
Benqing Zhou, Jinxing Liu, Lu Wang, Meng Wang, Chong Zhao, Haoyu Lin, Yuanke Liang, Rheal A. Towner, and Wei R. Chen, “Iron oxide nanoparticles as a drug carrier reduce host immunosuppression for enhanced chemotherapy”, Nanoscale, 2022 (DOI: 10.1039/D1NR07750C)
Nicolas Means, Chandra Kumar Elechalawar, Wei R. Chen, Resham Bhattacharya, and Priyabrata Mukherjee, “Revealing macropinocytosis using nanoparticles”, Molecular Aspects of Medicine, 83, 100993, 2022 (doi.org/10.1016/j.mam.2021.100993)
Meng Wang, Yong Li, Miao Wang, Kaili Liu, Ashley R. Hoover, Min Li, Rheal A Towner, Priyabrata Mukherjee, Feifan Zhou, Junle Qu, Wei R. Chen, “Synergistic interventional photothermal therapy and immunotherapy using an iron oxide nanoplatform for the treatment of pancreatic cancer”, Acta Biomaterialia, 138, 453-462, 2022 (doi.org/10.1016/j.actbio.2021.10.048).
Kaili Liu, Ashley R. Hoover, Jason R. Krawic, Christa I. DeVette, Xiao-Hong Sun, William H. Hildebrand, Mark L. Lang, Robert C. Axtell, Wei R. Chen, “Antigen presentation and interferon signatures in B cells driven by localized ablative cancer immunotherapy correlate with extended survival”, Theranostics, 12(2): 639-656, 2022 (doi:10.7150/thno.65773).
Benqing Zhou, Jinxing Liu, Meiai Lin, Jingyi Zhu, Wei R. Chen, “Recent advances in immunotherapy, immunoadjuvant, and nanomaterial-based combination immunotherapy”, Coordination Chemistry Reviews, 443, 2021 (214009). doi.org/10.1016/j.ccr.2021.214009
Feifan Zhou, Meng Wang, Teng Luo, Junle Qu, and Wei R. Chen, “Photo-activated chemo-immunotherapy for metastatic cancer using a synergistic graphene nanosystem”, Biomaterials, 265, 2021. doi.org/10.1016/j.biomaterials.2020.120421.
Miao Wang, Jie Rao, Meng Wang, Xiaosong Li, Kaili Liu, Mark F. Naylor, Robert E. Nordquist, Wei R. Chen, Feifan Zhou, “Cancer photo-immunotherapy: from bench to bedside”, Theranostics, 2021; 11(5): 2218-2231. doi: 10.7150/thno.53056
Meng Wang, Benqing Zhou, Lu Wang, Feifan Zhou, Nataliya Smith, Debra Saunders, Rheal A. Towner, Jun Song, Junle Qu, and Wei R. Chen, “Biodegradable pH-responsive amorphous calcium carbonate nanoparticle as an immuneadjuvant for multimodal imaging and enhanced photoimmunotherapy”, Journal of Materials Chemistry B, 2020, 8, 8261–8270. DOI: 10.1039/D0TB01453B.
Benqing Zhou, Qiang Wu, Meng Wang, Ashley Hoover, Xin Wang, Feifan Zhou, Rheal A. Towner, Nataliya Smith, Debra Saunders, Jun Song, Liwei Liu, Junle Qu, and Wei R. Chen, “Immunologically modified MnFe2O4 nanoparticles to synergize photothermal therapy and immunotherapy for cancer treatment”, Chemical Engineering Journal, 396, 2020 (125239). (doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2020.125239)
Mladen Korbelik, Judit Banáth, Wei Zhang, Tomas Hode, Samuel S.K. Lam, Paul Gallagher, Jianhua Zhao, Haishan Zeng, and Wei R. Chen, “N-dihydrogalactochitosan-supported tumor control by photothermal therapy and photothermal therapy-generated vaccine”, Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology, B: Biology, 204, 111780, 2020.
Shuhong Qi, Lisen Lu, Feifan Zhou, Yuzhou Chen, Mengli Xu, Lu Chen, Xiang Yu, Wei R. Chen, and Zhihong Zhang, “Neutrophil infiltration and whole-cell vaccine elicited by N-dihydrogalactochitosan combined with NIR phototherapy to enhance antitumor immune response and T cell immune memory”, Theranostics, 10(4), 1814-1832, 2020 (doi:10.7150/thno.38515).