Recently, the award results of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) 2021 projects were released. Our school has received three grants, including one general project and two youth projects, with total funding of 1.09 million yuan.

Associate professor Chen Guanglong successfully got the general project supported by NSFC (Grant No. 12174247). The title of the research project is Studies on effect of cluster surface-tension and formation dynamics of cluster in a gas jet produced from the supersonic gas expansion under the high gas backing pressure and the research funding is 0.61 million yuan. This project is in the research frontier of the laser interaction with matter. The study focuses on the supersonic gas clustered-gas jet under a high backing pressure. Prof. Chen wants to obtain more scientific support for the understanding of the interaction mechanism between ultra-intense laser and large-sized clusters. The clustered-gas jet, which possesses the unique density advantage, has attracted lots of research interests in the study of intense laser-matter interaction. Owing to the available femotosecond laser setup with the power of hundreds of TW, even PW, the relativistic intensity laser interaction with the gas jet of large-sized clusters will become one of the research hotspots. The characterization of the clustered-gas jet produced by high gas backing pressure is demanded for the interaction of laser pulses with cluster. In this project, the supersonic clustered-gas jet is produced from the gas adiabatic supersonic expansion into vacuum under high gas backing pressures in a large-scale multi-chamber differential pumping vacuum system. The cluster size is measured by Mach-Zehnder interferometer and time-of-fight (TOF) mass spectrometry. It would be expected to reveal the physical reasons why Hagena's size law is not applicable under high backing pressure, and introduce a scaling law for the estimation of the cluster size in the cluster jet under the high gas backing pressure. These results will be very important for the studies on the laser-cluster interaction and the application of gas clusters.

Dr. Gong Liping successfully got the youth project supported by NSFC (Grant No. 12104288). The research project title is Optical force study of micro-nanoparticles with second harmonic effect in optical tweezers and the research funding is 0.24 million yuan. Dr. Gong is mainly engaged in the theoretical basis of optics, including vector optical field control, nonlinear optics and optical tweezers. Optical tweezers are one of the important techniques to control micro-nanoparticles and currently used for noncontact manipulation in physics, chemistry, and biology. In the past five years, her researches focus on nonlinear optical effects in optical tweezers. This project will continue the previous studies and develop the optical force theory of particles with second-order nonlinear optical effect. Then, Dr. Gong wants to detect the movement law of particles with second harmoni (SH) effect in the optical tweezers system. Furthermore, the implementation of the project can help develop the second order nonlinear polarization theory of spherical nanoparticles and the optical force theory with SH effect particles will be established. The basic law of the interaction between laser and particle second-order nonlinear polarization response will be expected to be elucidated from a mechanical point of view. Besides, the experimental phenomena and the experimental result will be explained, and novel optical nonlinear particle capture and control methods will be explored. Nonlinear optical trapping will be exploited for applications in bio-photonics and super-resolution imaging.

Dr. Liu Xiao successfully got the youth project supported by NSFC (Grant No. 12104288) and the research fund is 0.24 million yuan. The research project title is Residue-based targeting DENV / ZIKV protein with inhibitors interaction and drug resistance mechanism research. The spread and revival of arboviruses, such as dengue and Zika virus, has become a global public health event. For now, no specific antiviral compound has been approved for the treatment of two viral infections. Basic understanding of protein-ligand interaction and quantitative characterization of binding free energy is essential in rational medicine design. The traditional residue-based energy decomposition method MM / GBSA brings errors to the prediction results. The deviation comes from neglecting entropy change calculation and the real dielectric environment of residues, etc. In recent years, Dr. Liu has worked hard to overcome the shortcomings of traditional methods and developed ASIE, a method for calculating the residue-specific binding free energy, which improves the calculation efficiency and accuracy. Therefore, in this project, 1) Dr. Liu will use ASIE to explore the binding mechanism of existing inhibitors-two virus NS5 target proteins. 2) Virtual screening has a lower hit rate of effective lead compounds. After the software screening, ASIE-PLII will be used for secondary screening analysis. 3) Dr. Liu will develop a new accurate and computational efficient ASIEx-y algorithm based on the recently proposed ASIE for drug resistance prediction. Studying the mechanism of drug resistance will help avoid the problem of target protein mutations affecting drug efficacy in new drug discovery. Exploring the existing inhibitor-target protein interaction mechanism provides important theoretical guidance value for the design of new anti-arbovirus drugs.

In recent years, the university has put scientific research in its high priority, strengthened top-level design, released a series of scientific research supporting files. The university continuously establishes and improves the scientific research system for its future through sustainable scientific research policy and operation mechanisms. The university also organizes and holds special scientific research meetings on applying for national projects as well. Moreover, the university proactively encourages teachers to have a clear scientific research direction and establish research teams to carry out original research topics and technological innovation. Under the leadership and care of the Scientific Research Department, the school has invited well-known scholars to give academic presentations and project application guidance so that the scientific research atmosphere of the school becomes stronger and the scientific research projects and achievements reach a higher level.