Cavitation is an important mechanism for therapeutic ultrasound. However, it is difficult to control cavitation and the underlying physical and biological effects remain elusive. Dr. Fenfang Li have conducted systematic research on key questions such as the fluid dynamics and biological effects of cavitation microbubbles at the cellular and molecular levels. Her main achievements include:

(1) Uncovered the mechanisms of stretching and damaging on cells by strong cavitation bubble from the perspective of biophysics.

(2) Obtained highly controlled bubble - cell interaction in the sublethal range, and identified two distinct types of intracellular calcium waves: a fast response correlating with significant membrane poration, and a slow response triggered by calcium influx through stretch-activatedion channels.

(3) Provided a new strategy to elicit intracellular calcium signaling without cell injury under mild cavitation conditions by displacing integrin binding beads on the cell membrane. And further revealed the key mechanosensitive molecular players involved.

Besides, achieved high-throughput and label-free measurement of the mechanical properties of cancer cells, and correlated with their phenotypes and genetics by using the transient fast flow generated by single cell hydrodynamic stretching or the microsieve.

These studies provide scientific understandings and new insights for cutting-edge applications such as the controlled release of drugs by sonoporation, ultrasound neuromodulation, and early detection of the progress of invasiveness of cancer cells.

Fenfang's work has been published in high impact journals such as PNAS, Theranostics, Biophysical Journal, and Physical Review Fluid. They have been positively cited by top journals such as Nature, PNAS, Theranostics, Advanced Science, Journal of Controlled Release, and have been reported by several scientific news outlet includingThe Medical News,EurekAlert,Scitech Daily,Phys.org,etc. Fenfang was also invited as the session chair of 10th International symposium on cavitation, which is the world's leading event committed to cavitation study. Fenfang had received 450,000 RMB of grants on sonogenetics while she was Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine Dean’s Postdoc Fellow in Singapore. It is a joint program by imperial college London and Nanyang Technological University Singapore with only one awardee each year.