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 biological cues within the tumor microenvironment that determine the fate and therapeutic efficacy of drugs. By developing multichromatic pH nanosensors with high spatial resolution, he uncovered profoundly 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 functions as a potent yet underappreciated regulator of drug response and immune suppression, whereas sodium lactate, its anionic counterpart, exerts immune-protective effects (Nature Communications, 2022). These mechanistic insights have enabled the rational design of acidity-targeted immunotherapeutic nanodrugs and metabolism-modulating immune adjuvants to enhance therapeutic precision and efficacy.

To date, Dr. Feng has authored over 40 peer-reviewed publications in leading journals, with more than 45,000 citations, and holds three patents for his discoveries.

news

Jan 22, 2026 Our paper, Targeting severe acidity for tumor-activatable Interleukin-2 therapy, was published in Cell Reports Medicine!
Dec 20, 2025 Jun’s paper was published in STAR Protocols!
Dec 12, 2025 Our preprint, Homing and Detection of Unknown Primary Head-Neck Cancer by Acid-Sensing Nanoparticles, is now available on Research Square.
Dec 02, 2025 We received the SCCC & BME Translational Research Pilot Program Award!
Jul 19, 2025 New domain name registered!

latest posts

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

selected publications

2026

  1. Cell Rep Med
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    Targeting severe acidity for tumor-activatable Interleukin-2 therapy
    Qiang Feng, Raymundo Pantoja, Jacqueline G. Lopez, Wei Li, Zhichen Sun, Quan Wang, Shuyue Ye, Vijay S. Basava, Gang Huang, Katy Torres, Mingyi Chen, Tao Yue, Baran D. Sumer, and Jinming Gao
    Cell Reports Medicine, 2026
    DOI

2025

  1. preprint
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    Homing and Detection of Unknown Primary Head-Neck Cancer by Acid-Sensing Nanoparticles
    Jinming Gao, Qiang Feng, Jun Chen, William Hartnett, Sindhu Voorugonda, Brittny Tillman, John Truelson, Larry Myers, Andrew Day, Vijay Basava, and others
    Research Square, 2025
    Preprint
    DOI

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