Research Team
Team members/Experts/ Consultants
Dr Xin Liu
Associate Professor
Dr Xin Liu received her bachelor degree in Bioinformatics from Tongji University. She received her PhD degree in bioinformatics and drug design from National University of Singapore. Her research centers around systems biology and computer aided drug design. She has published 10 peer-reviewed papers in such top journals in the field of medicinal chemistry as Current Medicinal Chemistry, PNAS and Nucleic Acids Research. Her primary research areas include: Systems analysis of cross-talks between pathways facilitating (Enabling drug target identification and advancing system-level understanding of diseases)，Development of machine learning based QASR method(for high throughput screening of novel drug hits), Biomarker discovery(by high throughput –omics data mining by incorporating consensus scoring of multiple random sampling and multistep evaluation of gene-ranking consistency for maximally avoiding erroneous elimination of predictor genes).
Dr Ken Cheng
Associate Professor
She has broad experience in mass spectrometry and NMR-based comprehensive metabolomics and lipidomics studies. She?specializes in multi-omics data (particularly metabolomics, proteomics, and gut microbiome) and multidimensional data integration methods. Her expertise includes exploring novel biomarkers, developing diagnostic and predictive models, and investigating the regulatory mechanisms of bioactive compounds in metabolic diseases.
Dr Mingming Xu
Associate Professor
Received his PhD degree from Griffith University, Australia. Before joining Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, he did postdoctoral research at Soochow University for over two years. His previous researches include development of fluorescent probes for the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, mass spectrometry-based discovery of small molecule inhibitors against alpha-synuclein aggregation, and discovery of biomarkers for Parkinson’s disease and pancreatic cancer via glycoproteomics. Dr. Xu’s current research primarily focuses on Drug discovery and mechanistic studies for common neurodegenerative diseases, Identification of exosomal biomarkers from biofluids for common cancers, Mass spectrometry-based biomarker discovery.
Director of the unit
Professor Lei Fu
Centre Director
Lei Fu, Ph.D., is Professor and Executive Dean of the Academy of Pharmacy, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University. He is a Jiangsu “Double Innovation Doctor” and Leading Talent in International Disciplines.
He earned his B.Sc. and M.Sc. from Fudan University, and Ph.D. in Chemistry from Stanford University under Professor James P. Collman. He worked at Free University Berlin and Stanford University, then led preclinical drug R&D at Pharmacyclics Inc.
He was a professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (2006–2020) and joined 糖心Vlog官方 in 2021 to build the Academy of Pharmacy. His research focuses on mitochondrial dysfunction, metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases.
He has published over 80 papers in Science, PNAS and other top journals, with more than 20 patents. He is Associate Editor of Bioorganic Chemistry and collaborates with the World Bank on African traditional medicine and the African Pharmacopoeia.