Biography

Dr. Chang-Guo Zhan is an Endowed Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Director of Molecular Modeling and Biopharmaceutical Center in the College of Pharmacy, University of Kentucky. He also serves as Director of Chemoinformatics and Drug Design Core of the Center for Pharmaceutical Research and Innovation at the University of Kentucky. With a research activity ranging from basic sciences to practical applications, Dr. Zhan has published more than 340 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals, and has been more than 37 patents or patent applications. Dr. Zhan has developed new computational algorithms used to understand detailed structures, properties, and mechanisms of potential drug molecules interacting with their targets in solution. He has further developed novel, reliable and efficient computational design approaches, including the virtual screening of transition states, in structure-and-mechanism-based computational drug design and discovery. Using the virtual screening of transition states approach which he pioneered, Dr. Zhan has demonstrated its value by making a breakthrough in design and discovery of highly efficient therapeutic enzymes as novel, promising therapeutic candidates. Two of the therapeutic candidates are currently in Phase II clinical trials in humans. He has been very successful in securing nationally competitive research funding, including more than $20M from the NIH and NSF as PI. At the University of Kentucky, Dr. Zhan was named as University Research Professor by the President and Board of Trusty in 2016, and won Kirwan Prize (the top research award at the University of Kentucky) in 2017. He is a winner of 2005 Emerging Computational Technology Prize, American Chemical Society (ACS) Division of Computers in Chemistry, and is the current recipient of the NIDA Translational Avant-Garde Award from the NIH. Dr. Zhan was elected AAPS Fellow in 2010, and won 2016 AAPS Research Achievement Award in Drug Discovery and Development Interface.

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Research Interest

Development of reliable and efficient tools for drug design, discovery, and development. Integrated in silico, in vitro, and in vivo approaches to drug discovery and development Protein engineering and development of therapeutic enzymes. Rational design, discovery, and development of novel therapeutic agents that may be small-molecules, peptides, or proteins. Translational research - from discovery to therapy.