Prof. Liang Xu
His lab has been working on drug discovery for novel small molecule cancer therapeutics targeting cell signaling pathways, especially for cancer cell chemo/radiosensitization by molecular modulation of apoptosis/autophagy/necroptosis. One of the first lead compounds tested in vitro and in vivo in his lab has completed Phase I-IIb clinical trials, as the World’s first pan-Bcl-2/Bcl-xL/Mcl-1 inhibitor entered clinic trials. Another XIAP inhibitor is also in clinical trials.
Currently, he is working on molecular cancer drug discovery, using structure-based rational drug design for novel small molecule inhibitors targeting Musashi-1/2 and HuR, the RNA-binding proteins so far believed “undruggable”.
Yong Zeng
Education Ph.D., Chemistry, University of Alberta – Postdoc, University of California, Berkeley
Precision Medicine represents a new era of medicine to revolutionize disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. His group works on the frontier research at the nexus of chemistry, material science, bioengineering, and medicine to develop transformative micro/nanoscale tools to advance precision medicine of challenging diseases, in particular, cancer and Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Their technology innovation has been evolving from single-function biochips to nano-engineered lab-on-a-chip system for applications to analysis of a spectrum of blood-based biomarkers, including extracellular vesicles (e.g., exosomes), proteins, DNA/RNA and glycans. They are also passionate about translational research to bring the technological innovations from the benchtop to bedside, working with biologists and clinicians. Their research programs are currently funded by several grants from National Institutes of Health and other funding agencies.
