About the Editors
Editor-in-Chief
Yinglong Miao, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Computational Medicine
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
Yinglong Miao is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Computational Medicine Program at University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. His lab research is focused on the development of novel theoretical and computational methods and AI techniques, which greatly accelerate molecular simulations and facilitate simulation analysis, and the application of these methods, making unprecedented contributions to biomolecular modeling and drug discovery. In collaboration with leading experimental groups, his lab combines complementary simulations and experiments to uncover functional mechanisms and design drugs of important biomolecules, including G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), membrane-embedded proteases, RNA-binding proteins and RNA.
Associate Editors
Jianing Li, PhD
Associate Professor, Borch Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
Prof. Li’s research focuses on the innovation of multiscale modeling approaches and artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) for drug discovery, which allows accurate and efficient design of small molecules, biologics, and nanoparticles for potential therapeutics and drug delivery. She has discovered small molecules and peptides toward therapeutics to treat neurological diseases, infections and inflammation, and cancers. Prof. Li is a member of the Purdue Institute of Drug Discovery, Purdue Institute of Cancer Research, and Purdue Institute of Inflammation Immunology and Infectious Disease.
Celine Valant, PhD
Associate Professor, Drug Discovery Biology
Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
A major challenge in my field is to understand how drug-like molecules activate cell-surface receptors to produce biological responses, and how these responses lead to physiological and/or pathological conditions. In that context, my research has been instrumental in validating 3 novel modes of drug action at the largest family of receptor in the human genome and the target for >35% of all medicines, the G protein-coupled receptors. First, I have provided evidence for the therapeutical benefits of biased ligand, second, I have elucidated the mechanism of action of allosteric modulators, and third, I have discovered a new class of drug that I named bitopic ligands. Equipped with these 3 paradigms of drug action, my research vision is to address two major therapeutic areas:
1) Schizophrenia. My vision is to explore a combination therapy approach between an agonist and an allosteric modulator together, from in vitro to in vivo pre-clinical models, and ultimately develop bitopic ligands.
2) Pain. My vision is to assist the Australian government initiatives to limit dispensing opioids by developing safer therapeutics through the discovery, characterisation and validation of allosteric modulators of opioid receptors.
Editorial Board Members
Andreas Bender, PhD, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Gabriela Cristina Brailoiu, MD, Thomas Jefferson University, Jefferson College of Pharmacy, USA
Xiaolin Cheng, PhD, The Ohio State University, USA
Gerhard Ecker, PhD, University of Vienna, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Austria
Tingjun Hou, PhD, Zhejiang University, China
Jung-Hsin Lin, PhD, Biomedical Translation Research Center. Academia Sinica, Taiwan
Susruta Majumdar, PhD, Professor of Anesthesiology, Washington University, USA
Defang Ouyang, PhD, University of Macau, Macau
Noelle Williams, PhD, Department of Biochemistry, UT Southwestern Medical School, Dallas, TX, USA
Qi Zhao, PhD, University of Science and Technology Liaoning, Anshan, China
Mingyue Zheng, PhD, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Weiliang Zhu, PhD, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Zhu Zhou,PhD, York College, City University Of New York, New York, NY, USA
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