Shanghai Institute of Material Medical Chinese Academy of Sciences

Biography

LIAO Cangsong, Ph.D., Principal investigator of Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica (SIMM), Chinese Academy of Sciences. Dr. Liao received his Ph.D. from Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica under the supervision of Prof. Yang Ye in 2013. After working in SIMM for one year, he joined Prof. Florian Seebeck’s group at Department of Chemistry, University of Basel, Switzerland as post-doctoral researcher in Nov. 2014, where he was working on identification and characterization of biosynthetic enzymes and elucidation of their catalytic mechanisms, as well as development of new cascade reaction for enzymatic methyl transfer. Dr. Liao started his position as Principal Investigator and group leader at SIMM in Jan. 2020. His research is mainly focused on discovering new enzymatic reactions and developing new chemo-enzymatic cascade reactions for asymmetric organic synthesis.

EDUCATION

2008.9-2013.6 Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences

2001.9-2005.6 B.E. in Pharmaceutical engineering, China Pharmaceutical university

WORK EXPERIENCE

2020.1-present Principal Investigator, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

2014.11-2019.12 Post-doctoral Researcher, Department of Chemistry, University of Basel, Switzerland

2013.7-2014.11 Research Assistant Professor, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences

2005.7-2007.8 Research Assistant, Zhejiang Hisun Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd

Research Directions

Biocatalysis, chemo-enzymatic cascade reactions for asymmetric organic synthesis and discovery of novel bioactive natural product

Grants & Research Projects

Achievements

1.Developed a streamlined in vitro S-adenosylmethionine regeneration pathway, which provided a new solution to a long-standing problem in the field of biocatalytic methylation (Nature Catalysis, 2019).

2.Developed an enzymatic reaction for asymmetric methylation of the non-activated Cβ‐H of α‐Amino Acids (ACIE, 2020).

3.Identified the first complete biosynthetic pathway of dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) and characterized all the intermediates and function of enzymes involved (ACIE, 2019).

morefold

Social Titles

morefold

Awards & Honors

1st prize Poster award, 14th International Symposium on Biocatalysis and Biotransformations (BioTrans 2019)

morefold

Pubilcations

Full Publication List

Selected Publications

1. Liao C.; Seebeck F.P. *. Asymmetric β‐Methylation of L‐ and D‐α‐Amino Acids by a Self‐Contained Enzyme Cascade. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2020, 59, 7184-7187.

2.Liao C.; Seebeck F.P. *. S-adenosylhomocysteine as a methyl transfer catalyst in biocatalytic methylation reactions. Nature Catalysis, 2019, 2, 696-701. Highlighted by Nature Catalysis News and Views (Nature Catalysis. 2019, 2, 644-645).

3. Liao C.; Seebeck F.P. *. In vitro Reconstitution of Bacterial DMSP Biosynthesis. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2019, 58, 3553-3556.

4. Goncharenko, K.V.; Flückiger S.; Liao C.; Lim, D.; Stampfli A.R.; Seebeck, F. P*. Selenocysteine as a substrate, an inhibitor and a mechanistic probe for bacterial and fungal iron‐dependent sulfoxide synthases. Chemistry-A European Journal, 2020, 26, 1328-1334.

5. Gamage A.M.; Liao C.; Cheah I.K.; Chen Y.; Lim D.R.X.; Ku J.W.K.; Chee R.S.L.; Gengenbacher M.; Seebeck F.P.; Halliwell B.; Gan Y.H*. The Proteobacterial Species Burkholderia Pseudomallei Produces Ergothioneine, which Enhances Virulence in Mammalian Infection. FASFEB J. 2018, 6395-6409.

6. Liao C.; Seebeck F.P. *. Convergent Evolution of Ergothioneine Biosynthesis in Cyanobacteria. Chembiochem, 2017, 18, 2115-2118.

7. Ruan J.; Liao C.; Ye Y.; Lin G*. Lack of Metabolic Activation of Predominant Formation of an Excreted Metabolite of Nontoxic Platynecine-Type Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids. Chem. Res. Toxcicol. 2014, 27, 7-16.

8. Liao C.; Tang C-P.; Yao S.; Ye Y.*. Humulane-type sesquiterpenoids from Pilea cavaleriei subsp. crenata. Org. Biomol. Chem., 2013, 11, 4840-4846.

morefold