Assistant Professor Department of Chemistry
Working Experience
Assistant Professor (10/2017 until now)
Department of Chemistry, Southern University of Technology (SUSTech)
Postdoc Researcher (03/2015-10/2017)
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
Advisor: Prof. Peter B. Dervan
Research: Development of Pyrrole-Imidazole Polyamides as Transcription Inhibitors in the Treatment of Myotonic Dystrophy Type I (DM1)
Education
Ph.D., Organic Chemistry (01/2012-01/2015)
University of Pennsylvania
Advisor: Prof. Patrick J. Walsh
Thesis: Palladium-Catalyzed C-C Bond and C-S Bond Formation of Sulfoxides
M.S., Pharmaceutical Chemistry (09/2003-06/2006)
Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China.
Advisors: Profs. Qianqun Gu and Weiming Zhu
Thesis: Bioactive Secondary Metabolites of Fungi Isolated from Marine Alga
B.S., Pharmaceutics (09/2000-06/2003)
Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China.
Personal Profile
Research
1. DNA Chemical biology, anti-cancer drug development targeting
mismatched base pair of DNA, cytotoxicity evaluation in cell and in vivo.
2. Development of Pyrrole-Imidazole (Py-Im) polyamides as novel chemical
biology probe.
3. Novel methodology to construct high-valence sulfur-containing
compounds.
4. Novel “non-catalytic” methodology development.
Teaching
Chemical Biology (Bachelor/Graduate)
Publications Read More
Research in our group primarily spans into two major branches: chemical biology and organic methodology.
Our chemical biology projects are centered around DNA recognization. Non-Watson-Crick (mismatched) base pairs of DNA were considered to be the major cause of cancer, and the ratios among mismatched base pairs varied dramatically in different types of cancer cell lines. A family of synthetic peptides, namely Pyrrole-Imidazole Polyamides (PIP), is designed and synthesized to bind to mismatched base pairs in the ocean of Watson-Click base pairs with high affinity and specificity. The recognization of mismatched base pairs will be demonstrated on cancer cells and animal models in the long goal to developed bioactive peptides in the treatment of cancer.
The methodology research in our group will be focused on the combination of transition-metal catalysis and main group chemistry. We develop state-of-art methods to afford molecules with main-group-containing functional group, such sulfoxides, sulfones, and sulfoximines. We are also interested in developing modern “non-catalytic” transformations.