Research Areas

• Research on new technologies and methods in drug research and development

• Development and research of novel antiviral small molecules

• Development and modification of protein biomacromolecule drugs

• Discovery and confirmation of drug targets /biomarkers

• Development of new influenza vaccine (PTC vaccine)

• Development and research of natural drugs, bionic drugs and biological candidate drugs

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Highlights

Education & work highlight experience:

1.He is the editorial board member of J Med Chem and Eur J Med Chem, and executive editor of J. chin. Pharm. SCI.

2. As Dean of School of pharmacy and professor of Department of chemical biology of Peking University, he has trained a large number of professionals.

3. He has successively won the following Honors: chief scientist of the major state basic research development program(973 program) of china (2010), Changjiang Scholar of the Ministry of Education (2013), leading scientist of national biological candidate drugs (2013), outstanding achievement award of 2017 WuXi App Tec Life Chemistry Research Award, and scientific and technological innovation leader of ‘ten thousand talents plan’ (2018)

4. In December 2016, the breakthrough progress of Demin Zhou / Lihe Zhang research team was published in Science (DOI: 10.1126/ science.aah5869 ). Taking the influenza virus as a model, the researchers invented the technology of artificially controlling virus replication so as to directly transform the virus into a vaccine. That is to say, in the case of retaining the complete structure and infectivity of the virus, only one triplet of the virus genome is mutated, so that the influenza virus changes from a lethal infectious source to a preventive vaccine, and then mutates more than three triplets, and the virus changes from a preventive vaccine to a drug for treating virus infection, and the efficacy increases with the increase of triplet number. This technology not only makes vaccine research and development no longer complex, but also gets rid of the dependence on the knowledge of virus biology, and is suitable for almost all viruses. This discovery overturned the concept of virus vaccine research and development, and made a major breakthrough in live virus vaccine. The achievement was awarded as "top ten scientific advances in China" and "annual paper of International Society of vaccines"

Key projects undertaken:

1. National Natural Science Foundation of China, innovative research group, 81821004, biopharmaceutical innovation based on precise modification of endogenous macromolecules, (2019.1-2023.12), 10.5 million yuan, in research, presided over

2. National Natural Science Foundation of China, major research program, 91753202, virus-cell fusion research and chemical intervention, target discovery and transformation based on spatiotemporal dynamic modification of virus envelope protein, (2018.1-2021.12), 3 million yuan, under research and presided over

3. National Natural Science Foundation of China, key project, 81530090, Study on the relationship between the structural basis, delivery targeting and immunogen adverse reactions of recombinant viral vector based on site directed modification of membrane protein, (2016.1- 2020.12), 2.74 million yuan, conclusion (excellent), chair

Taking the influenza virus as a model, researchers invented the technology of artificially controlling virus replication so as to directly transform the virus into a vaccine. That is, in the case of retaining the complete structure and infectivity of the virus, only one triplet of the virus genome is mutated to change the influenza virus from a lethal infectious source to a preventive vaccine, and then more than three triplets are mutated to change the virus from a preventive vaccine to a vaccine which is a drug for the treatment of viral infection, and its efficacy increases with the increase of triplet number. This technology not only makes vaccine research and development no longer complex, but also gets rid of the dependence on the knowledge of virus biology, and is suitable for almost all viruses.

Honors

1999   The first national excellent doctoral dissertation winner

2010   Chief Scientist of the major state basic research development program(973 program)

2013   Changjiang Scholars of the Ministry of Education

2013   National leading scientist of biological candidate drugs

2017   Ten Advances in Science in China

2017   International Vaccine Association annual paper winner

2017   Outstanding achievement award of WuXi App Tec Life Chemistry Research Award

Related News

People. CN | 将病毒直接转化为活疫苗及治疗性药物

http://scitech.people.com.cn/n1/2018/0227/c1007-29837856-2.html

Selected Publications

1. Zhang B#; Wang Y#; Yuan Y#; Sun J; Liu L; Huang D; Hu J; Wang M; Li S;Song W; Chen H; Zhou D*; Zhang X*; In vitro elimination of autoreactive B cells from rheumatoid arthritis patients by universal Car-T cells redirected by citrulline-bearing peptide epitopes, Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, 2020, 80(2): 176-184.

2. Wang, Y; Li, S; Tian, Z; Sun, J; Liang, S; Zhang, B; Bai, L; Zhang, Y;Zhou, X; Xiao, S; Zhang, Q; Zhang, L; Zhang, C*; Zhou D*; Generation of a caged lentiviral vector through an unnatural amino acid for photo-switchable transduction , Nucleic Acids Research, 2019, 47(19): E114-+.

3. Si L; Meng K; Tian Z; Sun J; Li H; Zhang Z; S Veronica; Li H; Fu G; Xia Q; Xiao S; Zhang L; Zhou D*; Triterpenoids manipulate a broad range of virus-host fusion via wrapping the HR2 domain prevalent in viral envelopes , Science Advances, 2018, 4(11): 0-eaau8408.

4. Wu L#; Chen J#; Wu Y#; Zhang B; Cai X; Zhang Z; Wang Y; Si L; Xu H;Zheng Y; Zhang C; Liang C; Li J; Zhang L; Zhang Q; Zhou D*; Precise and combinatorial PEGylation generates a low-immunogenic and stable form of human growth hormone , Journal of Controlled Release, 2017, 249: 84-93.

5. Si L#; Xu H#; Zhou X; Zhang Z; Tian Z; Wang Y; Wu Y; Zhang B; Niu Z;Zhang C; Fu G; Xiao S; Xia Q; Zhang L; Zhou D*; Generation of influenza A viruses as live but replication-incompetent virus vaccines. , Science, 2016, 354(6316): 1170-1173.

6. Ji, D., Zhang, Y., Sun, J., Zhang, B., Ma, W., Cheng, B., Wang, X., Li, Y., Mu, Y., Xu, H., Wang, Q., Zhang, C., Xiao, S., Zhang, L., & Zhou, D.* (2024). An engineered influenza virus to deliver antigens for lung cancer vaccination. Nature biotechnology, 42(3), 518–528. 

7. Zhang B, Sun J, Wang Y, Ji D, Yuan Y, Li S, Sun Y, Hou Y, Li P, Zhao L, Yu F, Ma W, Cheng B, Wu L, Hu J, Wang M, Song W, Li X, Li H, Fei Y, Chen H, Zhang L, Tsokos GC, Zhou D*, Zhang X. (2021). Site-specific PEGylation of interleukin-2 enhances immunosuppression via the sustained activation of regulatory T cells. Nature biomedical engineering, 5(11), 1288–1305. 

8. Si, L., Xu, H., Zhou, X., Zhang, Z., Tian, Z., Wang, Y., Wu, Y., Zhang, B., Niu, Z., Zhang, C., Fu, G., Xiao, S., Xia, Q., Zhang, L., & Zhou, D*. (2016). Generation of influenza A viruses as live but replication-incompetent virus vaccines. Science (New York, N.Y.), 354(6316), 1170–1173.