Research Interests

• He is known for the work of obtaining the effective mutant p53-rescuing compound.

• During Ph.D. and post-doc period (2001-2014), he worked with the molecular mechanisms how wild-type p53 was regulated in cancer (Cell, Cancer Cell, Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol, JBC, BBRC, and etc). During independent research career (2015-present), he turns to work of pursuing small-molecule compounds that target mutant p53. Firstly, he established a novel mutant p53-rescuing strategy; Secondly, he obtained a number of p53 rescue compounds by this strategy, including arsenic trioxide (ATO) that is widely validated as an effective mutant p53-rescuing compound in academic and industry; Thirdly, he solved the atom-level mechanism how tumor suppressor p53 was pharmacologically restored with function (Cancer Cell 2021, Cell Reports 2022, STAR Protocols 2021, STTT 2021, EMBO Rep 2022, JMCB 2021, Clinical and Translational Medicine 2021).

• These findings potentially open a new direction in targeted anticancer therapy: targeting tumor suppressors, a cluster of the most prevalently mutated proteins in cancer yet none is drugged. These findings have entered 4 clinical trials registered in the ClinicalTrials.gov.