On April 14, 2015, Prof. Zhu-Jun Yao, from Nanjing University visited our school, and gave us a lecture “The linkage between medicine chemistry and natural product”. 

   Prof. Zhu-Jun Yao received his Bachelor degree with honors from Fudan University in 1990, and obtained his Ph.D. degree from Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (SIOC), Chinese academy of Sciences (CAS) under supervision of Prof. Yu-Lin Wu in July 1995. He joined NIH as an NIH Fogarty International Visiting Fellow at National Cancer Institute (USA) in 1996, and worked in signal transduction with Dr. T. R. Burke, Jr. for three years. Dr. Yao was recruited as a faculty member at SIOC in September 1999, and immediately appointed as a full Professor and Principle Investigator in November 1999. In September 2008, Dr. Yao moved to Nanjing University School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering and serves at Nanjing National Laboratory of Microstructures as a Cyrus Tang Professor. He was appointed as the Chief of Organic Chemistry Division at School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering in March 2011 and a NJU Distinguished Professor in December 2011.

   The Yao group mainly focuses on the total synthesis, medicinal chemistry and chemical biology of bioactive natural products. Utilizing innovative synthetic methodologies established in the total syntheses, we are able to develop new chemical entities of medicinal interest and explore the mechanisms of biological action using chemical biology principles. Prof. Yao shared their outstanding work with us and communicated with our students.