# Aihua Fu

> Aihua Fu is a nanobiotechnologist and the co-founder, President and CEO of NVIGEN Inc., a San Jose nanobiotechnology company building molecularly engineered magnetic and fluorescent nanoparticles for cancer detection and personalized medicine. Trained as a chemist under Nobel-track nanoscience pioneer A. Paul Alivisatos at UC Berkeley and as a postdoc at Stanford, she turned quantum-dot and magnetic-bead research into commercial tools for liquid biopsy, cfDNA extraction, single-cell sequencing and circulating tumor cell capture. Her flagship NVIGEN X and NERNST-Seq platforms aim to read DNA, RNA, protein and cell signals together to predict cancer recurrence early and guide therapy.

- **Role:** Co-Founder, President and CEO at NVIGEN Inc.
- **Organizations:** NVIGEN Inc., Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley
- **Education:** Ph.D. in Chemistry (research group of A. Paul Alivisatos), University of California, Berkeley, M.S., Rutgers University, B.S., Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Postdoctoral research (advisors Shan X. Wang and Sam S. Gambhir), Stanford University
- **Known for:** Co-founded and leads NVIGEN Inc., a nanobiotechnology company commercializing multifunctional nanoparticles for biomedical use., Over 12 years of experience developing nanoparticles for biomedical applications., PhD work in the lab of A. Paul Alivisatos, a foundational figure in semiconductor nanocrystal science (2024 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience).

## Career timeline

- **2001-2006** — PhD in Chemistry at UC Berkeley in A. Paul Alivisatos' nanocrystal group, working on quantum dots and DNA-directed nanostructures.
- **2004** — Co-authored 'Discrete Nanostructures of Quantum Dots/Au with DNA' in JACS.
- **2007** — Published 'Semiconductor Quantum Rods as Single Molecule Fluorescent Biological Labels' in Nano Letters.
- **post-PhD** — Postdoctoral research at Stanford under Shan X. Wang and Sam S. Gambhir on nanoparticles for in vitro diagnostics and in vivo cancer imaging and drug delivery.
- **2011** — Co-founded NVIGEN Inc. in San Jose, California.
- **2014** — NVIGEN's last reported funding (Series B); total funding ~$1.1M.
- **2023** — NVIGEN announces high-resolution tissue RNA sequencing via magnetic nanoparticle capture and nanopipetting (NERNST-Seq).
- **2024** — NVIGEN's MagVigen platform recognized as top-performing in an independent study.
- **2025** — Independent benchmark of MagVigen published in PLOS ONE; NVIGEN advancing NVIGEN X ctDNA cancer precision profiling.

## Achievements

- Co-founded and leads NVIGEN Inc., a nanobiotechnology company commercializing multifunctional nanoparticles for biomedical use.
- Over 12 years of experience developing nanoparticles for biomedical applications.
- PhD work in the lab of A. Paul Alivisatos, a foundational figure in semiconductor nanocrystal science (2024 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience).
- Peer-reviewed publications on quantum dots and quantum rods as fluorescent biological labels.
- Recipient of the Dow Chemical Award, DuPont Award, Materials Research Society Graduate Student Award, and NIH Pathway to Independence Award.
- Developed the NID (nanoparticle-imaging-delivery) platform underpinning NVIGEN products.
- Led development of NVIGEN X (NGS/multiomics cancer profiling) and NERNST-Seq (nanoparticle-enhanced spatial and temporal RNA sequencing).

## Latest updates

- **2025** — NVIGEN's MagVigen magnetic nanoparticles benchmarked as top-performing in an independent PLOS ONE study; company advancing NVIGEN X ctDNA precision profiling.
- **2023** — NVIGEN unveiled high-resolution tissue RNA sequencing using magnetic nanoparticle capture and nanopipetting aspiration of single-cell contents.

## Links

- Website: https://nvigen.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/aihua-fu-1171065
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/nvigen
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/pages/Nvigen-Inc/191006317626200

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/aihua-fu
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-20