Zhixing Wu, Ph.D.

Zhixing Wu, Ph.D., is currently a Research Assistant Professor in Dr. Guangrong Zheng’s group in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry. He was first educated in chemistry at Sichuan University. He obtained his Ph. D. from Shanghai Instituted of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, where his research included natural product total synthesis, synthesis of protein kinase inhibitors, and synthesis of glutathione S-transferase inhibitors. During his postdoctoral research at College of Pharmacy, Texas A&M University, he worked on the synthesis of Abelson kinase inhibitors, design and synthesis of Cannabinoid receptor modulators and synthesis of Soluble Epoxide Hydrolase inhibitors. He worked as a medicinal chemist and project leader in pharmaceutical industry for 10 years, and his research was centered on small molecule drug discovery targeting oncogenic proteins. Collaborating with cross functional teams, his efforts led to the discovery of 3 drug candidates, one of which is currently in phase II clinical trial.

Dr. Wu’s research interests include the following: Organic synthesis; Synthetic methodology; Structure-activity relationship (SAR) analysis; Structure-property relationship (SPR) optimization; and anti-cancer drug discovery targeting cancer microenvironment