Biography

Assoc Prof Hang T. Ta is a Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellow at School of Environment and Science, Griffith University and a member of Queensland Micro- and Nanotechnology Centre. She is also an honorary Assoc Prof at Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, the University of Queensland.  She currently leads a team of 9 students working on nanomaterials for diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases.

Expertise

Assoc Prof Hang Ta’s research addresses solutions for current problems in diagnosis and treatment of diseases. She is a pioneering bio-nanomaterials researcher developing innovative nanomaterials and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) nanosensors for molecular imaging and drug delivery for cardiovascular disease in Australia. Ta’s group has great expertise in the full suite of forefront material synthesis and characterization techniques, and is skilled in the design of molecular imaging agents and drug delivery systems based on metal oxide and biocompatible polymers.

Awards and Funding

Assoc Prof Ta has been awarded a number of prizes, grants and prestigious fellowships such as National Heart Foundation postdoctoral fellowship, NHMRC ECR fellowship and Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellowship. She has secured over $2.9 million ($2.7 million as Lead Chief Investigator CIA) in competitive grant funding from national funding agencies for both discovery and infrastructure projects.

Research Outputs and Impacts

Assoc Prof Ta has published papers in journals with high impact factor such as Nature Protocols (Jif: 13.74), Circulation Research (Jif: 15.861), Biomaterials (Jif: 10.396) and Journal of Controlled Release (Jif: 8.078) with more than 1570 citations. Her research on iron oxide nanoparticles for molecular imaging of thrombosis was highlighted on cover page of Circulation Research, a second-ranked journal in the field of cardiovascular research.

Community contribution

Assoc Prof Ta is on Editorial Boards and is a peer reviewer for a number of journals, a chair/co-chair of conferences, serve on the committees of scientific societies, is an assessor for Masters/PhD theses, and a peer reviewer for project/fellowship applications nationally and internationally.

Teaching

Assoc Prof Ta taught CHEE4305 (Biomaterials: Materials in Medicine) at University of Queensland and taught AMME5931 (Nanomaterials in Medicine) at the University of Sydney. She has been a principal supervisor of more than 15 undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Links

Assoc Prof Ta has links both across Australia and internationally, including Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Monash University, University of Melbourne, University of Wollongong, Curtin University, Griffith University, Queensland University of Technology, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Prince Charles Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (Vietnam), University of Freiburg (Germany), and Soochow University (China).

Career Interruptions

Hang had 2 years FTE career disruption from 2011 to 2015 due to maternity leave and family commitment, which had a significant impact on her research outputs in the 2012-2016 period.