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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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 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 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.
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 (Lily) 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 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.
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 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 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.
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 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.
Amy is a graduate student in the Chemistry Department and is jointly advised by Professor Lingyin Li. She was born and raised in Korea but spent short periods of her life living in New Zealand and England. She graduated from UC Berkeley in 2023 with a B.S. in Chemical Biology. There, she worked with Professor Daniel Nomura on discovering novel molecular glue degraders and synthesizing bifunctional molecules capable of performing chemistry on RNA. She is excited to work at the intersection of immunology and chemistry to develop therapeutics in the field of immuno-oncology.
Pallas is a graduate student in Chemical and Systems Biology at Stanford University. Co-advised by Professor Steven Corsello, Pallas is excited to use chemical biology techniques to understand the biological mechanisms behind cancer and use this knowledge to design and improve upon therapeutics. Prior to Stanford, Pallas graduated from Harvard College in 2023 where she studied chemical and physical biology with a secondary in government. She worked in the lab of Emily Balskus where she studied the biosynthesis of a natural product. Additionally, she engineered fungi to produce enzymes for biofuel production in the lab of Steven Singer at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Grateful for the mentorship she has received, Pallas is dedicated to mentoring the next generation of scientists and shaping meaningful policies that make education and science more accessible..
Trae is an MD-PhD student at Stanford School of Medicine. He completed his undergraduate degree in Biology at Kennesaw State University (KSU) in 2021. During his tenure at KSU, he investigated the role of various transcription factors in gene regulation and nervous system development in C. Elegans in the lab of Dr. Martin Hudson. In the future, Trae is specifically interested in bridging neuroscience and chemical biology to elucidate novel therapeutics to treat devastating neurological diseases. In the Gray Lab, Trae focuses on developing small molecule inhibitors for neurological disorders and exploring the applications of machine learning in drug discovery.
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 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 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 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 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.
Leon is a PhD student from Germany. He completed his apprenticeship training as a Medical Laboratory Technician at the University Hospital Münster (Germany) and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry and a Master of Science degree in Chemical Biology from the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena (Germany). During his studies, he received training in drug discovery and development at the University of Oulu in Finland with Professor Lari Lehtiö on Tankyrases, and at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology with Dr. Florian Kloß on the development of anti-infectives. Additionally, during his graduate studies at the University of Tübingen (Germany), he synthesized novel MKK4 inhibitors in collaboration with the startup HepaRegeniX to design treatments for liver regeneration under the supervision of Professor Stefan Laufer.
Jeonghyeon is a Ph.D. student in the Chemical and Systems Biology Department at Stanford University, co-advised by Dr. Russ Altman. He earned his Pharm.D. degree in 2021 from Seoul National University. Following graduation, he worked as a research technician in Dr. Eric Fischer’s lab at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where he contributed to projects focused on targeted protein degradation using both biochemical and computational approaches. His current research centers on developing computational methods for designing molecular glues.
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 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 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 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 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.
Sherni is a purchasing assistant in the Gray Lab. She graduated from the University of California, Davis, with a Bachelor’s in Neurobiology. Her professional interests lie in delving deeper into lab operations, exploring drug design, and understanding pharmacology in oncology and neuroscience.
Julia is originally from Providence, Rhode Island and graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in Chemistry in 2024. After graduation, she joined the Gray Lab as a Life Science Research Professional to explore her interests in drug design and development for Cancer therapeutics. Julia aims to pursue a career in medicine with a focus in oncology.
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.
Originally from Colorado Springs, Colorado, Bryan is a Life Science Research Professional 1 (LSRP1) in the Gray Lab focused on assisting the lab through proteomic studies. They graduated from Stanford University in 2023 with their BS in Chemistry. In addition to organic and inorganic chemistry, Bryan was particularly focused on studying biochemistry during the latter part of their undergraduate education. Bryan performed research in the Svensson Lab (Stanford School of Medicine, Department of Pathology) on orphan hormones, such as Isthmin-1, in order to aid in the discovery and design of biologics for the treatment of metabolic diseases. During this time, they were introduced to protein sciences and have since taken a keen interest in protein biochemistry. Bryan’s professional interests include the design of therapeutics and biologics, in addition to utilizing proteomics to uncover modes of action and signal transduction pathways for novel therapeutics. They are excited to learn more about LC-MS/MS-based proteomics and various bioinformatic tools used to characterize protein structure, activity, and interactions.
Anu earned her post graduate degree in Plant sciences from Sri Krishnadevaraya University, India. She worked in Prof.T.Pullaiah’s lab as a CSIR fellow on Somatic embryogenesis and synthetic seed production in endangered plant spp. She then worked at the international crops research institute, Hyderabad on agro-bacterium mediated transformation of chickpea and regeneration of insect resistant transgenic varieties. After coming to US, she worked in Prof.Sweet-Cordero’s lab, Stanford where she developed keen interest in Cancer biology. In the Gray lab She is enthusiastic about delving into the field of prodrug research, particularly focusing on small molecule inhibitors and protein degraders.
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Zhengnian Li, PhD
Roman Sarott, PhD
Ivan Davidek
Muhammad Murtaza Hassan, PhD
Hannah Marie Jones
Xianmixinuer Abulaiti, PhD
Jinhua Wang, PhD
Christina Seo
Jason Tse
Ani Chouldjian
Inchul You, PhD
Erhan Keles, PhD
Wenchao Lu, PhD
Sean Toenjes, PhD
Sihui Yang, PhD
Elena Chai
Ryan Golden
Xiaofan Liu, PhD
Mingxing Teng, PhD
Guangyan Du, PhD
Behnam Nabet, PhD
Eric Wang, PhD
Mengyang Fan, PhD
Nick Kwiatkowski, PhD
Jie Jiang, PhD
Ryosuke Ishida, PhD
Eriko Koide
Hojong Yoon, PhD
JaeHyun Bae, PhD
Christopher M. Browne, PhD
Quan Cai, PhD
Jae Won Chang
Spandan Chennamadhavuni, PhD
Hwan Geun Choi, PhD
Yongmun Choi, PhD
Dries De Clercq, PhD
Xianming Deng, PhD
Dennis Dobrovolsky, PhD
Zainab Doctor, PhD
Fleur Ferguson, PhD
Ben Fram
Yang Gao, PhD
Lara Gechijian, PhD
Brian Groendyke, PhD
Mingfeng Hao
Young Jin Ham, PhD
Zhixiang He
Nathaniel J. Henning
Hubert Hai-Tsang Huang,
Wooyoung Hur, PhD
Jaebong Jang, PhD
Baishan Jiang, PhD
Liv Johannessen, PhD
Sivapriya Kirubakaran, PhD
Alan L. Leggett
Pi-Chun Li, PhD
Yina Li
Yanke Liang, PhD
Sang Min Lim, PhD
Qingsong Liu, PhD
Yao Liu, PhD
Theresa Manz
Chandra Miduturu, PhD
Mikaela Mohardt
Calla Olson, PhD
Michael Pacold, MD
Alexander Parent, MD, PhD
Benika Pinch, PhD
Chelsea Powell, PhD
Suman Rao, PhD
David Remillard, PhD
Carmen Sivakumaren, PhD
Mizutani Takashi, PhD
Chun Pong Tam
Li Tan, PhD
Carson Thoreen, PhD
Alyssa Verano, PhD
David L. Waller, PhD
Kenneth D. Westover, MD, PhD
Amy L. Wojciechowski
Ting Xie, PhD
Yuan Xiong, PhD
Mei Zeng, PhD
Jianming Zhang, PhD
Wenjun Zhou, PhD
