Personal Introduction:

Chen Fan is a Principal Investigator and Professor at the School of Basic Medical Sciences, Shanghai Jiao Tong University College of Basic Medical Sciences. He received his Ph.D. in 2013 from the Shanghai Institute of Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Subsequently, he conducted postdoctoral and assistant researcher work at internationally renowned institutions including Cornell University College of Medicine and Stockholm University. In August 2024, he joined the Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology at the School of Basic Medical Sciences, Shanghai Jiao Tong University College of Basic Medical Sciences, where he established his own research group. His research focuses on structural pharmacology of drugs related to neuropsychiatric disorders. In recent years, as first author, he has published research papers in internationally renowned journals such as Nature, Nature Chemical Biology, and Neuron. The research group primarily focuses on drug targets associated with neuropsychiatric disorders, employing interdisciplinary approaches combining structural biology, pharmacology, and computational biology to investigate the mechanisms of novel targets and to conduct research on the design and discovery of innovative drugs.

Publications:

1. Chen Fan, John Cowgill, Rebecca J Howard, Erik Lindahl. Cryo-EM structures of ρ1 GABAA receptors with antagonist and agonist drugs. Nature Communications. 2025

2. Chen Fan, Marie Lycksell, Yuxuan Zhuang, Rebecca J Howard, Erik Lindahl. Calcium stabilizes the flexible N-terminal domain of the bacterial ion channel DeCLIC. Journal of Structural Biology: X. 2025

3. Lin Chen, Chen Fan, Antian Wang, Chenyun Zhang, Peiying Li, Renhe Yu, Kexin Shi, Minghao Chen, Shiqi Yang, Wen Shi, Qingxiang Song, Gan Jiang, Yukun Huang, Xiaoling Gao*, Xiaodong Sun*. Trojan Horse‐Inspired Biomimetic Lipoprotein Nanocarrier for Noninvasive Anti‐VEGF Therapy of Ocular Fundus Neovascularization. Advanced Materials. 2025

4. Chen Fan*, John Cowgill*,  Rebecca J. Howard, and Erik Lindahl. Divergent mechanisms of steroid inhibition in the human ρ1 GABAA receptor. Nature Communications. 2024

5. Chen Fan, Emelie Flood, Nattakan Sukomon, Shubhangi Agarwal1, Toby W. Allen ,Crina M. Nimigean. Calcium-gated potassium channel blockade via membrane-facing fenestrations. Nature Chemical Biology. 2023

6. John Cowgill*, Chen Fan*, Nandan Haloi, Victor Tobiasson, Yuxuan Zhuang, Rebecca J. Howard, and Erik Lindahl. Structure and dynamics of differential ligand binding in the human ρ-type GABAA receptor. Neuron. 2023 (* co-first author)

7. Chen Fan, Nattakan Sukomon, Emelie Flood, Jan Rheinberger, Toby W Allen, Crina M Nimigean. Ball-and-chain inactivation in a calcium-gated potassium channel. Nature. 2020