Rate My Professor Lei Fu

Professor Lei Fu serves as Executive Dean and Professor at the Academy of Pharmacy, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, a role he assumed in September 2023 after serving as Associate Dean for Learning and Teaching from December 2020 to August 2023. He obtained his B.Sc. in Chemistry in 1984 and M.Sc. in Nuclear and Radiochemistry in 1987 from Fudan University in Shanghai, China, followed by a Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1997 from Stanford University under the supervision of Dr. James P. Collman, and completed postdoctoral research there from 1997 to 1998. Earlier positions include Lecturer at Fudan University from 1987 to 1990 and Invited Scientist at Free University Berlin from 1990 to 1993. From 1998 to 2005, he was Principal Investigator and Group Leader at Pharmacyclics Inc. in California, directing drug discovery and process research for anti-cancer and anti-cardiovascular agents. He co-founded ND Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from 2005 to 2008 and has held the position of Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Associate Dean at Shanghai Jiao Tong University's School of Pharmacy since March 2006. Additionally, he is an adjunct Professor at Roosevelt University and Santa Clara University in the United States, a summer visiting scholar at Stanford University since 2009, and a scientific consultant for various pharmaceutical companies.

Lei Fu's research interests center on drug discovery and development targeting metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases, process research for drug active pharmaceutical ingredients and related substances, traditional Chinese medicines as botanical cosmeceuticals, medical devices for targeted drug delivery systems, and human hibernation studies employing biomimetic models of cytochrome c oxidase, particularly addressing mitochondrial dysfunction and chronic diseases. He has published over 70 peer-reviewed articles in leading journals such as Science, PNAS, Chemical Reviews, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, Accounts of Chemical Research, Journal of Organic Chemistry, and European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. Key recent publications include 'Design, synthesis, and investigation of anti-Alzheimer's activity and molecular mechanisms of phosphatidylserine derivatives' (2026, European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry), 'Benchmarking Sequence-Based Compound–Protein Interaction Prediction through Constructing a Debiased Data Set CDPN' (2025, Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling), and 'Computational Modeling of PI3K/AKT Pathway in Bipolar Disorder and Type 2 Diabetes' (2025, International Journal of Molecular Sciences). Fu holds more than 20 United States and China patents, invented two cosmeceutical products incorporating traditional Chinese medicines licensed to Henkel and Beiersdorf, and leads a collaborative initiative with Addis Ababa University's Centre for Innovative Drug Development and Therapeutic Trials for Africa on local medicinal herbals and an African herbal pharmacopeia, supported by China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He edits Bioorganic Chemistry for Elsevier and serves on the editorial board of Pharmaceutical Fronts for Thieme.