2016-         Principal Investigator, Shenzhen Graduate School of Peking University

2014-2015 Associate specialist, University of California, San Francisco (Supervisor: Prof. Lei Wang)

2008-2014 Postdoctoral Fellow, Salk Institute (Supervisor: Prof. Lei Wang)

2002-2007 Ph.D., Organic Chemistry, Peking University (Advisor: Prof. Zhen Yang)

1998-2002 B.Sc., Chemistry, Peking University (Advisor: Prof. Zhen Yang)

Our research interests include: genetic code expansion and its applications in biological studies, semisynthesis and diversity-oriented syntheses of bioactive natural products through biocatalysis and metabolic engineering, and small molecule inhibitors of important drug targets.

1. Xiaohua Chen, Zheng Xiang, Ying S. Hu, Vanessa Lacey, Hu Cang and Lei Wang. (2014). Genetically Encoding an Electrophilic Amino Acid for Protein Stapling and Covalent Binding to Native Receptors. ACS Chem Biol. 9, 1956-61.

Comments on this article by Jefferson Tilley in “Faculty of 1000”: http://f1000.com/prime/718487039

2. Zheng Xiang, Vanessa K. Lacey, Haiyan Ren, Jing Xu, David J. Burban, Patricia A. Jennings and Lei Wang. (2014). Proximity Enabled Protein Crosslinking via Genetically Encoding Haloalkane Unnatural Amino Acids. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 53, 2190-3.

3. Irene Coin, Vsevolod Katritch, Tingting Sun, Zheng Xiang, Fai Yiu Siu, Michael Beyermann, Raymond C. Stevens and Lei Wang. (2013). Genetically Encoded Chemical Probes in Cells Reveal the Binding Path of Urocortin-I to CRF Class B GPCR. Cell 155, 1258-1269. Highlighted by Nat. Methods 2014, 11, 10. Previewed by Cell 2013, 155, 1207-8. Comments on this article by Patrick Sexton in “Faculty of 1000”: http://f1000.com/prime/718194625

4. Ji-Yong Kang, Daichi Kawaguchi, Irene Coin, Zheng Xiang, Dennis D. M. O’Leary, Paul A. Slesinger and Lei Wang. (2013). In Vivo Expression of a Light-Activatable Potassium Channel Using Unnatural Amino Acids. Neuron 80, 358-370.

5. Zheng Xiang, Haiyan Ren, Ying S. Hu, Irene Coin, Jing Wei, Hu Cang and Lei Wang. (2013) Add an unnatural covalent bond to proteins through proximity-enhanced bioreactivity. Nat. Methods. 10, 885-8. Highlighted by Chemical & Engineering News, 91(32), August 12, 2013. Comments on this article by Thomas Kodadek in “Faculty of 1000”: http://f1000.com/prime/718112868

6. Angela R. Parrish, Xingyu She, Zheng Xiang, Irene Coin, Zhouxin Shen, Steven P. Briggs, Andrew Dillin and Lei Wang. (2012). Expanding the Genetic Code of Caenorhabditis elegans Using Bacterial aminoacyl-tRNA Synthetase/tRNA Pairs. ACS Chem. Biol. 7, 1292-302. Comments on this article by Eranthie Weerapana in “Faculty of 1000”: http://f1000.com/prime/716797801

7. David B. F. Johnson, Jianfeng Xu, Zhouxin Shen, Jeffrey K. Takimoto, Matthew D. Schultz, Robert J. Schmitz, Zheng Xiang, Joseph R. Ecker, Steven P. Briggs and Lei Wang. (2011). RF1 knockout allows ribosomal incorporation of unnatural amino acids at multiple sites. Nat. Chem. Biol. 7, 779-86. Comments on this article by Gottfried Otting in “Faculty of 1000”: http://f1000.com/prime/13371154

8. Zheng Xiang and Lei Wang. (2011). Enantiospecific Synthesis of Genetically Encodable Fluorescent Unnatural Amino Acid L-3-(6-Acetylnaphthalen-2-ylamino)-2-aminopropanoic Acid. J. Org. Chem. 76, 6367-71.

9. Bin Shen, Zheng Xiang, Barbara Miller, Gordon Louie, Wenyuan Wang, Joseph P. Noel, Fred H. Gage, Lei Wang. (2011). Genetically Encoding Unnatural Amino Acids in Neural Stem Cells and Optically Reporting Voltage-Sensitive Domain Changes in Differentiated Neurons. Stem Cells 29, 1231-40.

10. Jeffrey K. Takimoto, Zheng Xiang, Ji-Yong Kang and Lei Wang. (2010). Esterification of an Unnatural Amino Acid Stucturally Deviating from Canonical Amino Acids Promotes Its Uptake and Incorporation into Proteins in Mammalian Cells. ChemBioChem 11, 2268-72.

11. Jeffrey K. Takimoto, Katrina L. Adams, Zheng Xiang and Lei Wang. (2009). Improving Orthogonal tRNA-synthetase Recognition for Efficient Unnatural Amino Acid Incorporation and Application in Mammalian Cells. Mol Biosyst. 5, 931-4.