Peking University, July 4, 2017: Dr. Lei Xiaoguang, a full professor in College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering at Peking University (PKU), has won the prestigious 2017 Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award for Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry.

The award, which was created in 2005 by Tetrahedron Publications, is given to just two individuals each year who have exhibited "exceptional creativity and dedication" in the fields of organic synthesis and bioorganic and medicinal chemistry, respectively. Professor Lei is the first Chinese and even the first Asian chemist who has received this award in bioorganic and medicinal chemistry.

"I’m extremely pleased and honored to be recognized by Tetrahedron for our research group’s work,” Professor Lei said. “I am especially grateful to all of my co-workers for their many years’ dedication and hard work which help to push our science forward to tackle the most significant challenges in our fields.”

As a 2017 Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award winner, Professor Lei was invited to present a plenary lecture at the 18th Tetrahedron Symposium which was held in Budapest, Hungry in this year from June 27 to July 1. In addition, Professor Lei also received a special issue of Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry which was dedicated to celebrate his award.

Professor Lei Xiaoguang was born and raised in Beijing, China. He obtained BSc degree in chemistry at Peking University in 2001. He then moved to Boston and conducted his Ph.D. research studies on natural product synthesis and chemical biology under the supervision of Professor John. A. Porco at Boston University. He received Ph.D. in 2006, and then moved to New York City and joined Professor Samuel J. Danishefsky’s group at Columbia University as a postdoctoral fellow in bioorganic chemistry. In early 2009, he returned to China, and started his independent research career as a Principal Investigator and Director of Chemistry Center at National Institute of Biological Sciences (NIBS) in Beijing. In early 2014, he received a tenured professorship from Peking University, and moved his research group to College of Chemistry at Peking University. He also joined the Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Science as a senior PI. The major research areas of Professor Lei's laboratory are: chemical biology, natural product total synthesis and medicinal chemistry. He has systematically used small molecule probes including complex natural products to dissect extrinsic programmed cell death pathways including both apoptosis and programmed necrosis (necroptosis), and illuminated a number of new molecular mechanisms underlying these fundamental cellular processes.

Professor Lei has received a number of other academic awards including: Swiss Chemical Society Lectureship Award, The David Ginsburg Memorial Lectureship Award, Roche Young Investigator Award, Chemical Society of Japan Distinguished Lectureship Award, International Chemical Biology Society (ICBS) Young Chemical Biologist Award, National Distinguished Young Investigator Award, Chinese Chemical Society Prize for Young Scientists, Servier Young Investigator Award in Medicinal Chemistry, Thieme Chemistry Journal Award, and IUPAC Young Chemist Award.

Lei group website: http://www.chem.pku.edu.cn/leigroup/

Edited by: Zhang Jiang
Source: College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering