Education

• PhD in Biophysics, Cornell University, January 2000.
• MSc in Physical Chemistry, Peking ( Beijing) University, China, July 1988.
• BSc in Chemistry, Peking ( Beijing) University, China, July 1985.

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Research Interests

My long-standing scientific interest is to understand the structure and dynamics of matter at the atomic/molecular level (“the jigglings and wigglings of atoms” from the wonderful Feynman Lectures on Physics), and their relationship to the functions and properties of our physical and biological macro-world (the spatial-temporal collective behavior). My research domains span from X-ray macromolecular crystallography, molecular docking, molecular dynamics, quantum chemistry to statistical mechanics and non-equilibrium and equilibrium thermodynamics. Since the underlying complexity makes most of the research problems analytically intractable, computational approaches have to be adopted (the so-called third science of computation/simulation after theory and experiment).

Specifically, I would start with the study of molecular recognition because molecular recognition between biomolecules like proteins, DNAs, RNAs and small ligands is of central importance in biological and pharmacological processes like signal transduction, DNA transcription, enzymatic reaction and drug action. Whether two molecules bind to each other or not and how strong that binding is depend on the binding free energy differences. Therefore, predicting absolute and relative binding free energies of molecular associations is of great scientific and practical value. In fact, free energy calculation remains one of the most challenging issues in current computational sciences, even though great progress has been made and creative approaches have been developed over the past few decades.

Projects:

1) Structure-based/computer-aided drug design (SBDD/CADD)

• Anti-cancer drug design targeting BCL-2/BCL-xL, DNA methyltransferase (DNMT), thymidine kinase (TK), STAT3 and tubulin.
• Anti-diabetic (type 2) and anti-metabolic syndrome (MS) drug design targeting 11β-HSD type 1.

2) Molecular docking and free energy simulation

• Molecular docking. Both sampling and scoring need to be improved.
• Free energy simulation. Both better “end-point” evaluation and fast and efficient “phase-mapping” are to be explored.

3) X-ray macromolecular crystallography

• The determination of 3D structures of biologically important proteins/DNAs/RNAs or their complexes (molecular machines).
• The development of crystallographic computing methods for both phase solution (reciprocal space) and structure refinement (real space).

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Biography

Dr. Chenglong Li obtained his B. Sc. in Chemistry and M. Sc. in Physical Chemistry from Beijing University in 1985 and 1988, respectively. He worked at the Institute of Biophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He came to the United States and obtained his Ph.D. in Biophysics at Cornell University, New York in 2000. He spent five years in San Diego, California, working as a postdoc in Structural Biology at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research (2000-2002) and research associate in Computational Chemistry at the Scripps Research Institute (2002-2005). Starting August 1, 2005, he moved to Columbus, Ohio as a tenure-track assistant professor in the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy at the College of Pharmacy, the Ohio State University.

Dr. Li's research interests focus on molecular recognition, with a strong application to structure-based computer-aided drug design. He combines molecular modeling, X-ray crystallography and thermodynamic measurements to explore molecular interactions, especially protein-ligand interactions, at both atomic and electronic levels. His current working projects includes both computational method developement and drug design: 1) development of a novel multi-fragment docking strategy; 2) design and discovery of STAT3 SH2 domain binders for targeted cancer therapy; 3) design and discovery of UGPase inhibitors for anti-Leishmaniasis; 4) strucutural, mechanistic and inhibition studies of novel N-glycosidases RCL and BlsM.

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Courses Taught

• Pharm835: Structure-based Computer-aided Molecular Design.
  
  This course is offered to graduate students every other year. The 1st class was Autumn, 2007; the next one will be Autumn 2009. 3 credits.

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Professional Experience

• The Ohio State University:
  August 2005 – Present. Tenure-Track Assistant Professor, Division of Medicinal Chemistry & Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy.

  The Scripps Research Institute:
  May 2002 – July 2005. Research Associate in Computational Chemistry/Biology.

  The Burnham Institute:
  July 2000 – May 2002. Postdoc in Molecular Modeling and Structural Analysis.

  Cornell University:
  January 1994 – January 2000. Ph.D. Candidate in Biophysics.

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Related Links & Research News

Finding Treatments for Neurological Diseases

A story from the Ohio Supercomputer Center about Dr. Chenglong Li's drug-discovery research.

Synthetic Molecules Could Add Spice To Fight Against Cancer

A story from Science Daily focusing on the research of Drs. Chenglong Li, Fuchs, and Pui-Kai Li.

MLSD movie: docking of substrates FAD and PO4 simultaneously to E. coli PNP

 

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