Stephen Hinshaw, PhD

Stephen earned his Ph.D. at Harvard Medical School in 2016. There, he studied chromosome segregation and was a member Stephen Harrison’s laboratory and the Program in Genetics and Genomics. As a postdoctoral fellow, Stephen used cryo-electron microscopy to determine structures of large inner kinetochore protein assemblies. During this time, he was an HHMI fellow of the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation at Harvard Medical School and a visiting postdoctoral fellow at Janelia Research Campus in the laboratory of Niko Grigorieff. Stephen, who is originally from the Bay Area, returned to join the Gray laboratory at Stanford in 2021. He is interested in developing tools and therapeutics to perturb mitosis.

Wenzhi Ji, PhD

Wenzhi received his Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry from School of Pharmaceutical Science Tsinghua University in 2018 under the supervision of Professor Xuebin Liao. During his Ph.D. he focused on total synthesis of natural products and developing novel methodologies to access bioactive molecules. After post-doctoral training focusing on developing new protein tyrosine phosphatase inhibitors in Zhong-Yin Zhang’s lab in Purdue University, he joined Gray lab in 2020. Currently he is working on development new therapeutics targeting cancer treatment.

Zhengnian Li, PhD

Zhengnian received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from GIBH, CAS (China) in 2016. After post-doctoral training focusing on the discovery of kinase inhibitors of TNK1/2, CDK11 and EGFR, and development of anti-viral inhibitors against Dengue and Zika, and degrader molecules for BTK, Wee1 in Nathanael Gray lab of Harvard Medical School and Stanford University School of Medicine. Then, Zhengnian was promoted to research scientist in 2022. He is interested in developing of small-molecule inhibitors for cancer, as well as developing bifunctional small molecules induced proximity of the native system.

Wenchuan Liang, PhD

Wen received her PhD in biophysical chemistry from UC Berkeley. After post-doctoral training in the Biochemistry Department at Stanford University, she worked for the Department of Developmental Biology, the Stem Cell Institute, and the Stanford Cancer Institute (as Senior Research Scientist). Wen has been interested in cancer research and worked on projects including exploring imaging markers for tumor boundaries, potential oncolytic viral therapies, and therapeutic targets for HER2+ breast cancer. She joined the Gray Lab in 2021 to help manage the lab.

Tinghu Zhang, PhD

Dr. Zhang is a senior scientist at Cancer Institute of Stanford. Dr. Zhang is an experienced medicinal chemist and chemical biologist. Dr. Zhang leads and supervises drug discovery projects with the targets of kinases and transcription regulators. His research focuses on the discovery of covalent modality and protein degradation. Prio to Stanford, Dr. Zhang was a senior scientist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where he has led the discoveries of covalent inhibitor of CDK7, CDK12/13, JNK, PIP4K, MKK4, Src and TEAD and degrader molecules for CDK12, CDK4/6, FGFR1/2, CDK2/5 et al. Under his leadership, Dr. Zhang has contributed several prototype chemical leads for further drug development including THZ1. Dr. Zhang was also a chemistry group leader at the Center of Protein Degradation (CPD) of Dana-Farber from 2018 to 2021. Dr. Zhang received his Ph.D on chemistry from USTC (China) in 2004.

Xianmixinuer Abulaiti, PhD

Xianmixinuer received her PhD in Cell Biology from Peking University in 2017 under the supervision of Prof. Lingsong Li. Her Ph.D. works mainly focus on cellular processes that drive neurological disorders. After receiving her PhD, she worked on the dynamics of stress granules in the etiology and pathology of human disease. Xianmixinuer joined Gray lab in October, 2022 as a postdoctoral scholar. She is interested in development of protein degradation as a means of targeting undruggable proteins for inhibition.

Woong Sub Byun, PhD

Woong Sub received his Ph.D. in College of Pharmacy Seoul National University in 2021 under the supervision of Prof. Sang Kook Lee. During his Ph.D., he focused on discovering anticancer agents from bioactive natural products or related synthetic compounds and further elucidating their underlying molecular mechanism in various cancers. After receiving his Ph.D., he worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at Seoul National University for a year and focused on research about cancer drug resistance and metastasis. He joined Gray lab in April, 2022 as a postdoctoral scholar, and he is interested in the development of small-molecule inhibitors and degraders as novel therapeutics for cancer and inflammation.

Brendan Dwyer, PhD

Brendan received his Ph.D. at The Scripps Research Institute in 2022 under the supervision of Prof. Alexander Adibekian. During his Ph.D., Brendan developed chemoproteomic methods for activity-based and reactivity-based protein profiling of photoswitchable serine hydrolase inhibitors and of kinetically tunable clickable cysteine probes. Furthermore, he also performed natural product target identification for novel anticancer and degradation-based therapeutic strategies. Brendan joined Prof. Gray’s laboratory as a postdoctoral scholar interested in developing novel cancer therapeutics through targeted chemically induced proximity strategies.

Qixiang Geng, PhD

Qixiang received his PhD in organic chemistry from Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, CAS in 2021 under the supervision of Prof. Dawei Ma. His PhD studies mainly focused on the divergent synthesis of hetidine-type C₂₀-diterpenoid alkaloids. Qixiang joined Prof. Nathanael Gray‘s lab in April 2022 and he is currently a postdoctoral scholar.

Sai Gourisankar, PhD

Sai earned his Ph.D. at Stanford Chemical Engineering in 2023. As a member of Gerald Crabtree’s laboratory in Stanford Developmental Biology, he studied ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling and led the development of chemical inducers of proximity to rewire transcription factors in cancer, focusing on B cell lymphomas. Prior to coming to Stanford, he studied Public Policy and History as a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford and was an undergraduate at the University of Texas, Austin. In the Gray lab, Sai is interested in all aspects of developing proximity therapeutics to target misregulated transcription in cancers and developmental disorders.

Muhammad Murtaza Hassan, MSc, PhD

Murtaza is a chemical biologist that joined the Gray Lab in July 2021 as a postdoctoral researcher. He developed his love for medicinal chemistry and chemical biology at the undergraduate level at the University of Toronto which then motivated him to pursue an MSc (York University, Supervisor: Prof. Edward Lee-Ruff, 2017) and PhD (University of Toronto, Supervisor: Patrick T. Gunning, 2021) in the field. His PhD work involved the development of some of the most potent and selective HDAC8 inhibitors known-to-date. It incorporated inhibitors with L-shaped conformational constraints to compliment the L-shaped HDAC8 pocket. His current work at the Gray Lab revolves around the development of first-in-class covalent inhibitors for recently discovered epigenetic targets that have been shown to synergize with anticancer immunotherapy. Additionally, he is interested in developing small-molecule chemoproteomic tools that can potentially expand our ability to target otherwise undruggable proteins, by using protein-protein interactions for cross-labelling/drugging interacting proteins.

Fen Jiang, PhD

Fen received his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from China Pharmaceutical University in 2018 under the supervision of Prof. Qidong You. After receiving his Ph.D., he worked in WuXi AppTec for nearly 5 years. His studies during Ph.D. and in WuXi mainly focused on small-molecule drug discovery. Fen joined Gray lab in March, 2023 as a postdoctoral scholar. He is interested in the development of novel modulators targeting cancer related proteins. 

Ji Hyeon Kim, PhD

Ji Hyeon Kim received her Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Korea University in August 2023, under the guidance of Prof. Jong Seung Kim. During her Ph.D., Ji Hyeon focused on developing prodrugs (small molecule drug conjugates), photosensitizers, and fluorescent probes targeting cancer stem cells, with the goal of inhibiting cancer metastasis. Subsequently, in September 2023, Ji Hyeon joined the Gray laboratory as a postdoctoral scholar. Her current research intersets are the development of novel cancer therapeutics through chemical inducers of proximity and focusing on cancer metabolism.

Huiqi Ni, PhD

Huiqi was born and raised in Shanghai, China. She earned her BS degree in 2019 from the University of Science and Technology of China, where she carried out undergraduate research under the direction of Prof. Xi-Sheng Wang (2016–2019). She joined the laboratory of Prof. Keary M. Engle at Scripps Research for Ph.D. studies (2019–2023), with the focus on palladium-catalyzed annulation reactions. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher in Prof. Nathanael Gray‘s lab.

Md Abdullah Al Noman, PhD

Noman, originally from Bangladesh, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy and a Master’s in Pharmaceutical Chemistry. He completed his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry in 2023 at the University of Minnesota under the mentorship of Dr. Gunda Georg. His Ph.D. work focused on development of RARalpha antagonists as male contraceptive agents and synthesis of natural product pironetin analogs as anticancer agents. As a postdoctoral scholar in Gray Lab, Noman explores the “undruggable” target space, employing novel medicinal chemistry tools. Outside the lab, Noman enjoys reading, cooking, and traveling.

Tian Qiu , PhD

Tian was born in Wuhan, China. He did undergraduate study in Tsinghua University (B.SC., 2009-2013) and then served as a research assistant in Prof. Yan-mei Li’s lab (2014-2016). Then he did his Ph.D. studies at the University of Chicago in Prof. Bryan Dickinson lab (2017-2022), with the focus on developing chemical tools for protein S-palmitoylation studies and novel proximity dependent labeling techniques. He joined Prof. Nathanael Gray’s lab in October 2022 as postdoctoral researcher.

Jaylissa Torres Robles, PhD

Jaylissa was born and raised in Puerto Rico, where she earned a B.S. in Chemistry at the University of Puerto Rico, Cayey. She then moved to Connecticut and earned a Ph.D. in Chemical Biology and Biochemistry at Yale University under the supervision of Professor Benjamin Turk. Her doctoral studies, funded by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, focused on developing a screening platform to study the role of short linear motifs in mediating Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase (MAPK) specificity at conserved non-catalytic docking sites. In this effort, she identified new p38a-selective docking motifs, discovered new MAPK substrates, and defined the molecular basis for selective disruption of substrate docking and pathway rewiring by cancer-associated ERK mutants. She joined the Gray Laboratory as a postdoctoral scholar interested in developing strategies to induce molecular proximity of therapeutic targets and investigate the function of understudied kinases.

Roman Sarott, PhD

Roman earned his PhD at ETH Zürich in May 2021. His doctoral research under the supervision of Prof. Erick M. Carreira focused on the development of fluorescent and photoswitchable probes for the study of cannabinoid receptors 1 and 2. Roman joined the Gray laboratory as a postdoctoral scholar in November 2021. He is interested in targeted, posttranslational protein modification using chemical inducers of proximity in the context of novel cancer therapeutics. 

Lushun Wang, PhD

Lushun received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the School of Chemical Biology and Biotechnology at Peking University under the supervision of Professor Tao Ye. During his Ph.D. he focused on total syntheses of marine natural products. After post-doctoral training focusing on photocatalysis and fluorescent probes in Ting Wang’s group at SUNY Albany and Han Xiao’s group at Rice University, respectively, he joined Gray lab in 2022. Currently, he is interested in the development of novel therapeutics for cancer treatment.

Yaning Wang , PhD

Yaning did her Ph.D. studies at Institute of chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (2015-2018) & Tsinghua University (2018-2021) in Prof. Sanzhong Luo’s lab, with the focus on asymmetric amino and transition metal catalysis. She joined Gray lab in April 2022 and is interested in the development of small-molecule kinase inhibitors and degraders.

Zhe Zhuang, PhD

Zhe Zhuang was born in Zhoushan, China. He received predoctoral training in Prof. Wei-Wei Liao’s lab (B.Sc., 2013, Jilin University) and Prof. Zhi-Xiang Yu’s lab (2014−2015, Peking University). He did his Ph.D. studies at Scripps Research in Prof. Jin-Quan Yu’s lab (2015−2021), with the focus on C−H functionalization of native substrates. He is currently a Postdoctoral Scholar in Prof. Nathanael Gray‘s lab.

Leyna Duong

Leyna is a graduate student in the Chemical and Systems Biology Department at Stanford. She graduated from MIT in 2022 with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Biology. During her time at MIT, she worked in Dr. Angela Koehler’s lab on discovering potential small molecule inhibitors for LIN28 to study its role in glioblastoma development. Leyna joined the Gray Lab in 2023 with an interest in developing therapeutics utilizing induced proximity strategies and small molecule inhibitors.

Esther Elonga

Esther is an MD/PhD candidate at Stanford University. She is interested in not only caring for patients but also being at the forefront of discovering therapies that could help them. She graduated from Harvard University in 2021 where she studied chemistry and educational studies. At Harvard, under the supervision of Dr. Anna Greka at the Broad Institute, her undergraduate research focused on a rare kidney disease called Mucin 1 kidney disease (MKD) and the therapeutic effects of a newly discovered compound BRD4780. In the Gray lab, Esther is interested in the development of small molecule inhibitors and targeted protein degraders as novel therapeutics.

Ryan Golden

Ryan is a graduate student in the Chemistry Department at Stanford. He graduated from UC Berkeley in the Fall of 2021 with a BS in Chemistry where he worked with Dr. Evan Miller on the development and optimization of novel, small-molecule, fluorescent probes used for cellular imaging. Ryan then joined the Gray Lab in January of 2022 as a Life Science Research Professional before joining the PhD program at Stanford later that year. In the Spring of 2023 he returned to the Gray Lab to begin his graduate studies focusing on potential cancer therapeutics that induce post-translational protein modifications via Transcriptional Chemical Inducers of Proximity (TCIPs) and other small-molecule proximity modulators.

Zixuan Jiang

Zixuan is a graduate student in the Department of Chemistry at Stanford University. Originally from China, She graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2022, where she received her Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry. She joined the Gray Lab in spring 2023 with an interest in discovering new degrader pharmacology and developing novel cancer therapeutics tackling undruggable targets through induced proximity-driven strategies.

Basel Karim

Basel is a graduate student in the Chemistry Department at Stanford University. He graduated from Penn State, where he received his B.S. in Biochemistry/Molecular Biology and Chemistry. During his undergraduate studies, he worked with Dr. Xin Zhang on the development of fluorescent probes to monitor protein aggregation processes. In the Gray lab, Basel is interested in using Proteolysis Targeting Chimeras (PROTACs) to study cancer pathways, as well as develop other heterobifunctional proximity modulators to induce new post-translational modifications.

Meredith Nix

Meredith is originally from Oakland, California, and graduated from Scripps College in 2019 with a degree in biochemistry. She then worked at the National Cancer Institute as a post-baccalaureate fellow in Dr. Martin Schnermann’s lab. There, she focused on cyanine dyes and targeted drug delivery in pediatric liver cancer. She is now a graduate student in the chemistry department.

Hlib Razumkov

Hlib was born and raised in Kyiv, Ukraine. After studying at the University of Toronto for two years he transferred to the University of Tokyo, where he worked under supervision of Prof. Eiichi Nakamura on iron- and chromium-catalyzed C-H activation reaction development. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree majoring in chemistry and joined Stanford Chemistry Department in 2020. He pursues his PhD studies in the Gray lab, focusing on covalent fragment library assembly and screening and mechanism-driven small molecules design for selective protein inhibition. In his free time, he likes to play volleyball and watch anime and movies.

Michelle Tang

Michelle is a graduate student in the department of Chemical & Systems Biology also being jointly advised by Dr. Steven Corsello. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in the fall of 2021 with a B.A. in Molecular & Cell Biology. Her undergraduate work under Dr. Daniel Nomura focused on the discovery of covalent inhibitors against the glutathione synthesis enzyme glutamate-cysteine ligase for cancer therapy. Michelle is excited to bridge the strengths of the Gray Lab and the Corsello Lab to develop novel therapeutic strategies for cancer and to uncover the mechanisms of action for small molecules that exhibit unexpected anti-cancer activity.

Jianing Zhong

Jianing is a graduate student in the Department of Chemistry at Stanford University. She graduated from Imperial College London in 2022, where she received her MSci in Chemistry with Medicinal Chemistry. At Imperial, she worked with Dr. James A. Bull on developing new methodologies towards the synthesis of functionalized 4-membered heterocycles. She joined the Gray Lab in 2023 with an interest in developing bifunctional molecules as proximity inducers and chemical modifiers for oncology indications.

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Xijun Zhu

Xijun was born in Guangzhou, China. She graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2021 with a BS in Chemistry. Under the supervision of Prof. Liming Zhang, her undergraduate research focused on gold(I)-catalyzed stereoselective glycosylation. She joined the Stanford Chemistry Department in 2021 and is currently a graduate student in the Gray Lab.

Ivan Davidek

Ivan is a lab assistant in the Gray Lab. He graduated from UC Davis in 2022 with a BS in biochemistry and a minor in bioinformatics. His professional interests involve computational drug design and neuropharmacology, and he is interested in learning more about the fragment-based design of covalent inhibitors.

Hannah Marie Jones

Hannah is a Life Science Research Professional in the Gray Laboratory. She joined the group in 2023. From Salem, Oregon, Hannah graduated from Willamette University with a BS in Chemistry with a Biochemistry focus in 2023. She is excited to learn more about activity-based protein profiling and the application of proteomics.

Michael Martinez

Originally from Ontario, California, Michael graduated from UC Berkeley with a BA in Chemistry. After graduation, he worked at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the Biomedical Isotope Facility under the Department of Cellular and Tissue Imaging. While there, he helped synthesize radiopharmaceuticals that were used for Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging to aid in the study of biological diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Dementia as well as the process of brain aging. He joined the Gray Lab as a Life Science Research Professional in 2023 with an interest in drug discovery and the study of small molecules that can be used in cancer therapeutics.