Zhixiang Chen

Professor, Principal Investigator

Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry

Short Biography

Dr. Zhixiang Chen is a professor and principal investigator at the Interdisciplinary Research Center on Biology and Chemistry (IRCBC), Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (SIOC). He earned his PhD at Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (SIOC), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), followed by postdoctoral research with Professor Shaomeng Wang at the University of Michigan. He was supported by the National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scientists Fund Program (Overseas) and the Shanghai Overseas High-Level Talent Program. Dr. Chen primarily focuses on small molecule drug discovery and target validation based on targeted protein degradation (TPD) technologies, with related research work published as the first/co-first author in international renowned journals such as Nature Genetics, Nature Communications, J. Am. Chem. Soc., and J. Med. Chem. (5 papers). He has filed 16 international/US patents as the core inventor, with most licensed/acquired by US company for clinical development.

Presentation Topic: Development of Highly Selective Molecular Glue Degraders Based on Rigid CRBN Ligand Scaffolds

• Molecular glue degrader can drug unligandable targets (such as transcription factors), but the general off-target degradation issue significantly limits their clinical development.

• Through screening and further structural optimization of in-house CRBN ligand library with rigid scaffolds, potent and highly selective molecular glue degraders targeting C2H2 zinc finger transcription factor IKZF2 were developed, which provide a new approach to overcome resistance in current cancer immunotherapies.

• In addition, potent, highly selective, orally bioavailable and CNS-penetrant molecular glue degraders targeting another unligandable target with potentially high value were developed.