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Position openings at the Ph.D. level

Position openings at the Postdoctoral level

Research Interests

New Synthetic Methodology, Bioinspired Supramolecular Catalysis, Biomimetics, Organic Chemistry, Bioorganic Chemistry, Nanomaterials Sciences, and Chemical Biology

The central theme in our research group is focused on the applications of broadly defined, bioinspired Supramolecular Chemistry into both chemistry and biology. Through the powerful self-assembly of predictable supramolecular entities, we are aiming to lock these multi-component designer ensembles into therapeutically or catalytically active conformations and subsequently apply them to address many challenging issues at the interface of chemistry and biology. Specifically, in these multidisciplinary research endeavors, we strive to

(1) elaborate ion-selective synthetic ion channels that, as conceptually shown on right, may form pores running through the lipid membrane. As a result of this action, they are expected to be capable of conducting ions and other species across the lipid membrane. In this arena, we are giving our top priorities to two fundamentally profound and practically significant issues that are not yet possible to address over the past two decades. First, can we experimentally mimic and recapitulate Nature's almighty ability to hormonally combine high ion selectivity into rapid ion conduction using simplified chemical systems so that Nature is not standing lonely? Second, can we go even further in devising general and reliable strategies for synthetic ion channels and pores easily tunable toward binding and differentiating various species including ions, water and small molecules so that we don't simply stop at the frontiers defined by Nature? Those optimized artificial ion channels will be tested for their ensuring applications in filling the antimicrobial drug pipeline for combating multi-drug resistant bacterial infections that has never been as challenging as it is nowadays. Many other recurring challenges remaining in the field of ion channels may also be separately or collectively addressable using our approach.

(2) develop high-throughput screening (HTS) systems for discovering highly efficient and stereoselective catalysts of varying types for catalyzing diverse functional group conversions. One of the most impressive advances in recently elaborated HTS assays involves the use of the enzymes or engineered enzymes in a combinatorial format. Still, in all the strategies reported so far, the ease and generality of screening assays toward a great many different types of chemical transformations is presenting a daunting challenge, which will be the major focus in our approach where evolutionary nature and combinatorial chemistry will be synchronized to develop fluorescent biomolecules-based tools for catalysts discovery and reaction development/optimization.

(3) evolve biomolecules-based catalytic drugs that can catalytically cleave any chosen disease-causing proteins, providing a potentially revolutionized yet general solution to eventually benefit our mankind's efforts in researching new weapons to thwart wide-ranging deadly enemies including extremely toxic mail-delivered anthrax. Such a dreamed system, once developed, would be desirably characterized by diversity and free choice in catalytic centers, high catalytic turnover number and excellent substrate selectivity that are comparable to or even rival their natural counterparts such as varying proteases.

(4) build focused combinatorial libraries possessing defined bioactive B-turn shapes for the potential utilities in cancer diagnostics and therapy as well as anti-HIV therapy. Herein, we wish to develop a general molecular platform for the construction of macrocyclic peptidomimetics where turn mimetics can (1) serve as the templates in reinforcing the attached natural/unnatural amino acids into bioactive turn shapes recognizable by a broad array of GPCRs (G-protein-coupled receptors, a very small portion of them already constitutes drug targets of 50-60% of all existing medicines) and (2) be systematically manipulated in their backbone while invariably maintaining turn-like geometry, thus exerting an additional control on the side chain display within the constrained turn region. We believe these designed turn mimetics would serve as a beneficial starting point that would be highly rewarding in the design and development of antagonists/agonists of GPCRs as new therapeutic leads for what is already a 60 billion dollars annual market. As mentioned earlier, we seek to apply these turn mimetics to somatostatin and CCR5 chemokine receptors that are of exceptional interests to physicians on cancer diagnosis/therapy and anti-HIV therapy.

Representative Publications

Lihua Yuan, Huaqiang Zeng, and Bing Gong,* etc. Helical Aromatic Oligoamides: Reliable, Readily Predictable Folding from the Combination of Rigidified Structural Motifs. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2004, 126 (50); 16528-16537.

Huaqiang Zeng, Xiaowu Yang, and Bing Gong,* etc. An extremely stable, self-complementary hydrogen-bonded duplex. Chem. Commun. 2003, 13, 1556-1557.

Bing Gong,* Huaqiang Zeng, and Jin Zhu, etc. Creating nanocavities of tunable sizes: Hollow helices. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 2002, 99 (18), 11583-11588.

Huaqiang Zeng, Xiaowu Yang, Robert A. Flowers, II and Bing Gong.* A Non-Covalent Approach to Anti-Parallel B-Sheet Formation. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2002, 124 (12), 2903-2910.

Huaqiang Zeng, Harold Ickes, Robert A. Flowers, II, and Bing Gong.* Sequence-Specificity of Hydrogen-Bonded Molecular Duplexes. J. Org. Chem. 2001, 66 (10), 3574-3583.

Jin Zhu, Ruben D. Parra, Huaqiang Zeng, Ewa Skrzypczak-Jankun, Xiao Cheng Zeng, and Bing Gong.* A New Class of Folding Oligomers: Crescent Oligoamides. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2000, 122 (17), 4219 -4220.

Huaqiang Zeng, Rebecca S. Miller, Robert A. Flowers, II, and Bing Gong.* A Highly Stable, Six-Hydrogen-Bonded Molecular Duplex. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2000, 122 (11), 2635 -2644.

Bing Gong,* Yinfa Yan, Huaqiang Zeng, Ewa Skrzypczak-Jankunn, Yong Wah Kim, Jin Zhu, and Harold Ickes. A New Approach for the Design of Supramolecular Recognition Units: Hydrogen-Bonded Molecular Duplexes. J. Am.Chem. Soc. 1999, 121 (23), 5607 -5608.

Jianmin Li,* Huaqiang Zeng, Jinhua Chen, Quanming Wang, and Xintao Wu. Crystal structure of a flexible self-assembled two-dimensional square network complex [Cu₂(C₃H₂O₄)₂(H₂O)₂(4,4'-bpy)].H₂O. Chem. Commun. 1997, 13, 1213-1214.