Chairman Dr. Zhang Xiaolong Visits Sun Yat-sen University School of Medicine
On 11 January 2025, Dr. Zhang Xiaolong, Chairman of Kehua AI (Shenzhen) Innovative Drug R&D Co., Ltd., visited Sun Yat-sen University School of Medicine with Prof. Xiao Shiji (Zunyi Medical University) and Associate Prof. Guo Dale (Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine), accompanied by Dr. Kang Yang, Associate Researcher at the Seventh Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University. The team discussed collaborative opportunities in natural product drug discovery.
During the visit, the four experts exchanged recent progress across natural product chemistry, drug delivery, and biomedical materials. They agreed to pursue long-term collaboration in five priority areas: (1) sustained efforts in natural product isolation and purification; (2) co-building and sharing a natural product compound library; (3) co-building and sharing a comprehensive natural product database (including NMR, MS datasets, etc.); (4) advancing cryo-EM structural analysis for natural products; and (5) exploring AI-enabled applications in natural product research.
Group photo from the visit
On-site lab discussion
Prof. Xiao Shiji holds a PhD in medicinal chemistry and serves as a doctoral supervisor, Associate Director of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Director of the Guizhou Mycological Society, and Member of the Medicinal Chemistry Committee of the Guizhou Pharmaceutical Association. His research focuses on extraction, purification, structural elucidation, and bioactivity studies of small-molecule natural products. Prof. Xiao has led two NSFC projects and six provincial initiatives, published over 80 papers (40+ SCI articles as first or corresponding author), and been granted ten invention patents. He has received the Guizhou Pharmaceutical Science & Technology Award (Second Class, first contributor) and the Guizhou Medical Science & Technology Award (First Class, fifth contributor), and teaches undergraduate courses in natural product and organic chemistry as well as graduate spectroscopy.
Associate Prof. Guo Dale (PhD) mentors master’s students and serves on the Organic Mass Spectrometry Committee of the Sichuan Analytical Testing Society. A 2016 graduate of the Chengdu Institute of Biology, CAS (medicinal chemistry), his research spans active constituents from TCM sources and endophytic microbes. Expertise includes enantiopure preparation of secondary metabolites (via resin, gel, RP silica, chiral media), absolute configuration analysis using NMR, HRMS, ECD/OR calculations, induced CD, single-crystal diffraction, and derivatization methods (e.g., Marfey, Mosher). He also evaluates bioactivity across cell, animal, and plant models. Prof. Guo has led eight projects (NSFC, Sichuan Science & Technology Program, China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, etc.) and published 30+ SCI papers in leading journals such as Journal of Natural Products, Phytochemistry, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, and Bioorganic Chemistry.
Dr. Kang Yang is an Associate Researcher at the Seventh Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, a master’s supervisor, a Shenzhen High-Caliber Overseas Talent awardee, and a Young Outstanding Scholar in the university’s talent program. He earned his bachelor’s degree at Sichuan University, PhD at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and completed visiting scholarship at North Carolina State University. His work focuses on tumor microenvironment-responsive nanocarriers, polymer self-assembly, and smart biomaterials, particularly supramolecular assemblies for cancer therapy. Dr. Kang has published over 40 papers, including 30 as first or corresponding author.
