Rate My Professor Rui Xiong

Xiong's research employs structure-based design of bioactive molecules to target disease-causing proteins and genes, utilizing biochemical, biophysical, cellular assays, X-ray crystallography, and computational modeling. The Xiong lab focuses on translational projects such as potent SARS-CoV-2 papain-like protease (PLpro) inhibitors licensed to pharmaceutical companies; small molecules sensitizing cold tumors to immune checkpoint inhibitors via mismatch repair deficiency (MLH1 targeting) for neoantigen presentation; novel covalent warheads and electrophilic scaffolds for undruggable oncogenic targets like KRAS G12D; and cheminformatics-integrated rational drug design. Key publications include "Non-Covalent Inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 Papain-Like Protease (PLpro): In Vitro and In Vivo Antiviral Activity" (2024), "Do Molecular Fingerprints Identify Diverse Active Drugs in Large-Scale Virtual Screening? (No)" (2024), "Structure-Guided Design and Synthesis of Pyridinone-Based Selective Bromodomain and Extra-Terminal Domain (BET)-First Bromodomain (BD1) Inhibitors" (2024), "Mechanism of Allosteric Modulation of Nicotinamide Phosphoribosyltransferase to Elevate Cellular NAD+" (2023), and contributions to Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (e.g., 2016, 59, 219-237; 2017, 60, 1325-1342). His scholarship garners over 1,200 Google Scholar citations, influencing medicinal chemistry, drug discovery, chemical biology, and oncology.