Biography

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 currently leads a team of 15 students and postdocs working on bio/nanomaterials for applications in life-threatening diseases such as inflammatory, cardiovascular diseases, cancers and bleeding disorder diseases.

Expertise

Prof Hang Ta’s research addresses solutions for current problems in diagnosis and treatment of life-threatening diseases such as cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases, cancers, and bleeding disorders. 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, metal oxide and biocompatible polymers. Ta group also develops cardiovascular disease on microfluidics devices, which allows fundamental investigation of the disease, diagnostics of the diseases, and also allows testing new therapies.

Awards and Funding

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 $5. million ($3.6 million as Lead Chief Investigator CIA) in competitive grant funding from national funding agencies for both discovery and infrastructure projects.

Research Outputs and Impacts

Prof Ta has published papers in journals with high impact factor such as Nature Protocols (Jif: 17.02), Advanced Science (Jif: 17.52), Circulation Research (Jif: 23.21), Biomaterials (Jif: 15.3), and Journal of Controlled Release (Jif: 11.47) with more than 3848 citations. Her research has been highlighted and featured on the covers of a number of journals. Particularly, 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

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

Prof Ta has taught Microbiology courses (2008NSC and 2010NSC) at Griffith University, CHEE4305 (Biomaterials: Materials in Medicine) at University of Queensland and AMME5931 (Nanomaterials in Medicine) at the University of Sydney. She has been a principal supervisor of more than 50 undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Links

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

Prof Ta 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.