As a postdoctoral fellow in Daniel Kahne’s lab, Pengxiang Shen is studying how the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria is assembled. Using synthetic chemistry and recent discoveries on bacteria protein biology, he is investigating new compound which interacts with key protein machine for bacteria to sustain intact membranes. This work aims to develop new antibiotics targeting drug-resistant gram-negative bacteria.
Pengxiang earned his PhD in Chemistry in Jin-Quan Yu’s lab at The Scripps Research Institute, where he developed new synthetic methodologies by Pd-catalyzed C-H activation.