GENG Meiyu is currently a professor at Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and serves as the Academic Director General. Dr. Geng has dedicated to innovative drug discovery and development to promote conceptual breakthroughs in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and cancer. 

1) Discovery of the first oligosaccharide drug being marked as a clinical breakthrough in anti-AD therapy

Through 22 years of audacious efforts, Dr. Geng spearheaded the discovery and pre-clinical-to-clinical development of sodium oligomannate (GV-971), a marine-derived oligosaccharide for AD treatment. GV-971 is the first anti-AD drug that has successfully met the primary endpoint of phase III clinical trials in almost the past two decades. It was well received by the renowned experts in AD fields including Dr. Jeffrey Cummings who stated that “the trial of GV-971 consistently showed a cognitive benefit and it has promised as a new therapy for Alzheimer’s disease”. GV-971 has filed NDA to China NMPA for approval as the first-line therapy for patients with mild-to-moderate AD. 

Using GV-971 as a probe, Dr. Geng discovered that the imbalance in microbiota facilitates peripheral immune cells to infiltrate the brain, resulting in enhanced microglial activation that contributes to AD pathogenesis. GV-971 decreases Aβ-related pathologies by reconditioning the gut microbiota (Cell Res, 2019). The findings were highlighted by Dr. David M. Holtzman, who commented “this data further supports the emerging idea that modulation of the gut microbiome via treatments such as GV-971 or other strategies should be further explored as novel strategies to slow the progression of AD”.

2) The translational research promoting conceptual progress in drug innovation and personalized cancer therapy

Dr. Geng has led the development of 14 targeted anticancer drugs, with 10 undergoing clinical trials in China. Among them, a novel anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) inhibitor SAF-189s achieves 100% disease control rate  and is responded in patients resistant to approved ALK inhibitors in phase I study, suggesting potential as the best-in-class. The fastest-growing c-Met targeting new drug candidate SCC244 is expected to submit an NDA application in 2021.

3) Dr. Geng’s research has made conceptual progress in personalized cancer therapy. 

A highlight is the personalized therapeutic solutions for epigenetic therapeutics, including methyltransferase EZH2 and histone deacetylases (HDAC) inhibitors. She discovered that intrinsic status of MLL1 inspires precision therapy with a highly effective combinational regimen in a broad spectrum of EZH2-aberrant solid tumors (Cell, 2018). She also discovered that combining JAK inhibitions could expand the benefit of HDAC inhibitors dealing with solid tumors like triple-negative breast cancer (Cancer Cell, 2016).

1. 2009, Leading Researcher(Shanghai) 

2. 2009, National Award for Technological Invention, 1st Prize 

3. 2010, Outstanding Leading Scientist (Shanghai) 

4. 2010, Women Innovation Award (Shanghai) 

5. 2011, Woman Pace-setterAward(Shanghai Women's Federation) 

6. 2013, Millions of Leading Engineering Talents, Chinese academy of Science

7. 2015, The elite of Shanghai science and technology

8. 2017, First Prize of Shanghai Pharmaceutical Technology

9. 2017, Wu Jieping Medical-Paul Janssen Pharmaceutical Research Prize

10. 2018, The 12th Guanghua Engineering Science and Technology Award

11. 2018, Science and Technology Festival-CCTV2018 (Top Ten) Scientific and Technological Innovation Figures

12. 2019, Prize of Scientific and Technological Progress of Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation

1.Huang X# , Yan J#, Zhang M# , Wang Y#, Chen Y, Fu X, Wei R, Zheng X， Liu Zh, Zhang X; Yang H，Hao B, Shen Y, Su Y, Cong X, Huang M, Tan M*, Ding J*, Geng M*.Targeting Epigenetic Crosstalk as a Therapeutic Strategy for EZH2-aberrant Solid Tumors, Cell, 2018;175(1):186-199. 

2.Zeng H#, Qu J#, Jin N#, Xu J, Lin C, Yang X, He X, Tang S, Lan X, Yang X, Chen Z, Huang M*, Ding J*, Geng M*.Feedback activation of leukemia inhibitory factor receptor limits response to histone deacetylases inhibitors in breast cancer. Cancer Cell, 2016;30(3):459-73. 

3.Wang X#, Sun G#, Feng T#, Zhang J#, Huang X, Wang T , Xie Z, Chu X, Yang J, Wang H, Chang Sh, Gong Y, Ruan L, Zhang G , Yan S, Lian W , Du C , Yang D , Zhang Q , Lin F, Liu J, Zhang H, Ge Ch, Xiao Sh, Ding J, Geng M*. Sodium Oligomannate Therapeutically Remodels Gut Microbiota and Suppresses Gut Bacterial Amino Acids-Shaped Neuroinflammation to Inhibit Alzheimer's Disease Progression. Cell Res,2019; 29 (10), 787-803. 

4.Lian Q#, Xu J#, Yan S, Huang M*, Ding H, Sun X, Ding J*, Sun B* and Geng M*. Chemotherapy-induced intestinal inflammatory responses are mediated by exosome secretion of double-strand DNA via AIM2 inflammasome activation. Cell Res, 2017;27(6):784-800. 

5.Yue X#, Ai J#, Xu Y, Chen Y, Huang M, Yang X, Hu B, Zhang H, He Ch, Yang X, Tang W, Peng X, Dong L, Wang H, Fan J*, Ding J*, Geng M*. Polymeric immunoglobulin receptor promotes tumor growth in hepatocellular carcinoma. Hepatology. 2017;65(6):1948-1962. 

6.Wang X, Zhang M, Ping F, Liu H, Sun J, Wang Y, Shen A*, Ding J*, Geng M*. Identification and therapeutic intervention of coactivated anaplastic lymphoma kinase, fibroblast growth factor receptor 2, and ephrin type‐A receptor 5 kinases in hepatocellular carcinoma. Hepatology. 2019;69:573-586. 

7.Jin N#, Bi A#, Lan X#, Xu J, Wang X, Liu Y,Wang T, Tang Sh, Zeng H, Chen Z, Tan M, Ai J, Xie H, Zhang T, Liu D, Huang R, Song Y, Leung Elaine Lai-Han, Yao X, Ding J, Geng M*, Lin Sh*, Huang M*. Identification of metabolic vulnerabilities of receptor tyrosine kinases-driven cancer. Nat Commun , 2019 Jun 20;10(1):2701. 

8.Ai J#, Tang Q#, Wu Y#, Xu Y#, Feng T, Zhou R, Chen Y, Gao X, Zhu Q, Yue Xihua, Pan Q, Xu S, Li J, Huang M, Daugherty-Holtrop Jennifer, He Y, Xu H.Eric, Fan J*, Ding J*, Geng M*. The Role of Polymeric Immunoglobulin Receptor in Inflammation-Induced Tumor Metastasis of Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma. J Natl Cancer Inst. 103(22):1696-712, 2011. 

9.Liu H, Ai J, Shen A, Chen Y, Wang X, Peng X, Chen H, Shen Y, Huang M*, Ding J*, Geng M*.c-Myc alteration determines the therapeutic response to FGFR inhibitors. Clin Cancer Res. 2017; 23(4):974-984. 

10.Shen A#, Wang L#, Huang M, Sun J, Chen Y, Shen Y, Yang X, Wang X, Ding J*, Geng M*. c-Myc alterations confer therapeutic response  and acquired resistance to c-Met inhibitors in MET-addicted cancers. Cancer Res, 2015 ,75(21):4548-59.