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in neuroscience, cancer/inflammation, infectious diseases, and other conditions. With this general idea in mind, and in active collaboration with other biologistsĀ ...
Meet Our Editorial Board Member

Current Drug Discovery Technologies, 2016, Vol. 13, No. 4

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Meet Our Editorial Board Member Dr. Jia Zhou Chemical Biology Program, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), 301 University Boulevard Galveston, TX 77555, United States Jia Zhou received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1997 from Nankai University, China. He proceeded to join the chemistry faculty in the same university and was promoted to Associate Professor. In 1999, he started his postdoctoral training in organic chemistry with Dr. Sidney M. Hecht (now at ASU) in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Virginia. After further postdoctoral training in medicinal chemistry with Dr. Alan P. Kozikowski (now at UIC) in the Drug Discovery Program at the Georgetown University Medical Center, he moved to Acenta Discovery, Inc. as a Senior Scientist in 2003. In 2007, he joined PsychoGenics, Inc., a pharmaceutical company located in New York, as a Senior Principal Scientist. After about 4 years of the postdoctoral training in both organic chemistry and medicinal chemistry in the Universities of US and 7 years of pharmaceutical Jia Zhou industry experience in drug discovery and development, he joined the faculty of Chemical Biology Program, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at UTMB as an Assistant Professor in 2010. He is also a faculty member of the Center for Addiction Research (CAR), Center for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases, and Sealy Center for Molecular Medicine of UTMB. In 2013, he was promoted to Associate Professor (tenured). In 2016, he was promoted to full professor. He is an NIH grant reviewer in several study sections. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed journal papers, 6 book chapters, and 15 patents. A complete list of published work in MyBibliography can be accessed by the following link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/browse/collection/47358553/?sort=date&direction=descending Prof. Zhou's research interests are broadly based on the interface of synthetic organic chemistry and medicinal chemistry, and in particular on the drug discovery of bioactive molecules to probe biological systems or act as potential therapeutic agents in neuroscience, cancer/inflammation, infectious diseases, and other conditions. With this general idea in mind, and in active collaboration with other biologists and pharmacologists, his group has been establishing a strong and creative research program that applies state-of-the-art chemical approaches to biological problems impacting diagnosis, prevention and treatment of human diseases. One of his current efforts is focused on design and synthesis of small molecules for probing function and development of pharmacological tools for understanding the workings of the brain and that of novel therapies for central nervous system (CNS) disorders such as drug abuse and addiction, depression, schizophrenia, pain, and neurodegenerative diseases. The proposed projects in this area include the identification, characterization and optimization of allosteric modulators and bitopic ligands of 5-HT2C receptor, neuromedin U receptor 2 (NMUR2) ligands, as well as other GPCR ligands. He is also working on the discovery of DeltaFosB inhibitors, neurexin modulators, and FGF14/Nav1.6 channel complex protein-protein interaction inhibitors as CNS probes and potential therapeutics. Another line of research development centers on the establishment of novel chemical libraries aiming at mechanism-based or lead compound-based drug discovery for cancer/inflammation, particularly by targeting Bcl-2 family proteins and apoptosis pathways, transcription factors as well as epigenetic therapy with the aid of molecular docking and chemical synthesis. Specifically, he is developing Bax activators, BH4 domain antagonists of Bcl2, orally bioavailable STAT3 inhibitors, AP-1 inhibitors, KLF5 inhibitors, KRAS plasma membrane localization inhibitors, cystathionine-Ī²-synthase (CBS) inhibitors, NNMT inhibitors, and BRD4 inhibitors as a new class of preventive/therapeutic agents for various human cancers including brain tumors, breast cancer, lung cancer, head/neck cancer, colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, and pancreatic cancer as well as inflammation. His research efforts on developing chemical probes include design and synthesis of small molecules targeting EPAC, which are exchange proteins directly activated by cAMP including cAMP-regulated guanine nucleotide exchange factors. These EPAC inhibitors have also been demonstrated as promising therapeutics for a variety of indications including infectious diseases. Last but not the least, his team is also working on natural product-inspired diversity-oriented synthesis that may lead to exciting potentials for discovery of novel targets and drug candidates. SELECTED PUBLICATIONS [1] [2] [3]

Zhou J, Neale JH, Pomper MG, Kozikowski AP. NAAG Peptidase Inhibitors and Their Potential for Diagnosis and Therapy. Nat Rev Drug Discov 2005; 4: 1015-26. Ding C, Bremer NM, Smith TD, Seitz PK, Anastasio NC, Cunningham KA, Zhou J. Exploration of Synthetic Approaches and Pharmacological Evaluation of PNU-69176E and Its Stereoisomer as 5-HT2C Receptor Allosteric Modulators. ACS Chem Neurosci 2012; 3(7): 538-45. Ding C, Zhang Y, Chen H, Chu L, Yang Z, Wild C, Liu H, Shen Q, Zhou J. Novel Nitrogen-Enriched Oridonin Analogs with Thiazole-Fused A-Ring: Protecting Group-Free Synthesis, Enhanced Anticancer Profile, and Improved Aqueous Solubility. J Med Chem 2013; 56(12): 5048-58.

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Current Drug Discovery Technologies, 2016, Vol. 13, No. 4

Meet Our Editorial Board Member

Xin M, Li R, Park D, Xie M, Owonikoko TK, Sica GL, Corsino PE, Zhou J, Ding C, White MA, Magis AT, Ramalingam SS, Curran WJ, Khuri FR, Deng X. Small Molecule Bax Agonists for Cancer Therapy. Nat Commun 2014; 5: 4935. Chen H, Zhou X, Wang A, Zheng Y, Gao Y, Zhou J. Evolutions in Fragment-Based Drug Design: The Deconstruction-Reconstruction Approach. Drug Discov Today 2015; 20(1): 105-13.