Our Team
Our research at CPU develops machine learning methods for predicting ACE inhibitory peptide activity and translates them to clinical practice. Our overarching goal is to offer each patient the right intervention (e.g. decreasing side effect) at the right time according to their individual risks and preferences. Our group is under Prof.Zheng's guidance and supervision.Prof.Cao also provides guidance and assistance for the wet-lab experiment section.
Team Building Activity
Faculty Advisors
Heng Zheng
Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Heng Zheng, Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences, work in Biomedicine Technology Transfer of Technology Transfer Platform; Nanjing University National Demonstration Base for Innovation and Entrepreneurship; School of Life Science and Technology, CPU; Institute of Medical and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Jiangsu Industrial Technology Research Institutegy. Prof. Zheng received his Ph.D in 2000, in microbial and biochemical pharmacy, CPU, under the supervision of Prof. Wutong Wu. In 2005-2007, he finished a postdoctoral work at School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nagasaki University, Japan. Prof. Zheng's research focuses on the research and development of antimicrobial drugs, especially on the antimicrobial peptides. He is an expert in the field of computer aided drug design, discovered several novel metallo-β-lactamase inhibitors, which searched as potential drug candidates for multiple-drug-resistant bacteria. He is also specialize in protein structure prediction, molecular docking, and molecular dynamics. He published more than 80 papers, obtained 3 Chinese invention patents in recent years.
Cao Lijuan
Ph.D., Researcher, Doctoral Supervisor
Cao Lijuan, Ph.D., Researcher, Doctoral Supervisor. She is a young key talent at the National Key Laboratory of Multi-Target Natural Medicines, a provincial distinguished young scholar, a recipient of the provincial “333 Project” three-tier talent training program, and Vice President of the Institute of Original Drug Research. Her research focuses on the study of metabolism-immune interaction regulatory mechanisms and novel target discovery, as well as the pharmacological mechanisms of natural medicines in metabolic diseases. She has led six projects including the General Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, sub-projects of major new drug creation, and sub-tasks of key R&D programs. Representative achievements have been published in journals such as Nat Commun, Cell Metab, Cell Reports, with over 30 SCI papers published and 5 authorized invention patents. She has also received the First Prize of Jiangsu Province Science and Technology Award (as the third contributor).
Project Members
Zhangheng Qian
School of life and science, undergraduate student, ACE project team leader
He is interested in artificial intelligence-assisted Drug Design, focus on building the ACEiP database and using machine learning or deep learning methods to predict peptide activity. His work has been presented at international conferences APBC.
Yunuo Zhou
Undergraduate, School of Life Science and Technology
She is an undergraduate student from the School of Life Science and Technology. Her research interests focus on artificial intelligence-aided drug design and biosynthesis. Currently, she serves as the second person in charge of the ACE inhibitory peptide research group
Maryam Nawaz
Final-year MSc candidate in Biology, Zheng's lab
A final-year MSc candidate in Biology, working in Zheng's lab. Her research focuses on computational biology and computer-aided drug design, particularly antimicrobial and antiviral peptides. She has experience in machine learning–based prediction models, peptide database curation (including DRAVP 2.0), and experimental validation. She is skilled in Python-based bioinformatics, deep learning, and molecular modeling. Her work has contributed to publications in Journal of Molecular Biology, Molecular Diversity, and Nucleic Acids Research, and has been presented at international conferences including Nature conferences and APBC.
Lelei Xiao
School of Life Sciences, undergraduate student, a member of the ACE project team
Involved in the development and organization of the project's database. She is interested in the intersection of data science and the life sciences, with a focus on biostatistics and AI-assisted drug design, particularly in applying quantitative methods to understand biological systems and support data-driven research.
Yunzhe Xu
School of Life and Science, undergraduate student, member of ACE project team
He is interested in interdisciplinary study of pharmacology and bioinformatics
Shipeng Li
School of life and science, undergraduate student
He works as a team member of the ACE project.
Jiangcheng Gao
School of life and science, undergraduate student, ACE project team member
He is interested in artificial intelligence-assisted Drug Design.
Qijun Song
School of life and science, undergraduate student, ACE project team member
Mainly work on data verification and structure(.pdb) collection.
Yang Hong
School of Life and Science, undergraduate student
Drawing on prior experience across internships and project participation, she aims to bring organized workflows and clear communication to the team.
Ruotong Lin
State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, graduate student
Assist with the project