Biography

Dr. Cheng Jin is a Principal investigator of Nucleic Acid Chemistry in the Hangzhou Institute of Medicine, Chinese Academy of Sciences. His research interests centre on nucleic acid chemistry and its applications in biology and medicine. He graduated with a PhD degree in chemistry from the Hunan University in 2018. From 2019 to 2022, he engaged in postdoctoral research in Tom Brown’s lab at the University of Oxford. He was selected into 2023 Excellent Young Scientists Fund Program (Overseas) of National Natural Science Fund of China.

Research Interests

We design and synthesize chemically modified oligonucleotides for diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

Our focus is on the synthesis and applications of chemically modified nucleic acids. We work on the synthesis of DNA and RNA analogues for the diagnosis and treatment of cancers and rare diseases. Using phosphoramidite chemistry and DNA solid-phase synthesis approaches we have designed and synthesized a number of functional molecules that show a mimic structure to oligonucleotides. These novel molecules have potential in the molecular assembly, molecular imaging, disease treatment etc.

Selected Publications

(1) Engineering enzyme‐cleavable oligonucleotides by automated solid‐phase incorporation of cathepsin B sensitive dipeptide linkers

Cheng Jin; Afaf H. EI‐Sagheer; Siqi Li; Katherine A. Vallis; Weihong Tan; Tom Brown*, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2022, 61, e202114016

 (2) Modular and automated synthesis of oligonucleotide-small molecule conjugates for cathepsin B mediated traceless release of payloads

Cheng Jin*; Siqi Li; Katherine A. Vallis; Afaf H. El-Sagheer; Tom Brown*,RSC Chem. Biol., 2024, 5, 738-744

  (3) Phosphorylated lipid-conjugated oligonucleotide selectively anchors on cell membranes with high alkaline phosphatase expression

Cheng Jin; Jiaxuan He; Jianmei Zou; Wenjing Xuan; Ting Fu; Ruowen Wang; Weihong Tan*, Nat. Commun. 2019, 10, 2704

 (4) Floxuridine homomeric oligonucleotides “hitchhike” with albumin in situ for cancer chemotherapy

Cheng Jin#; Hui Zhang#; Jianmei Zou; Yan Liu; Lin Zhang; Fengjie Li; Ruowen Wang; Wenjing Xuan; Mao Ye*; Weihong Tan*, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2018, 57, 29, 8994-8997

 (5) Conformational conversion enhances cellular uptake of F base double-strand-conjugated oligonucleotides

Huarong Bai#; Cheng Jin#; Jianmei Zou; Ruowen Wang; Ting Fu*; Weihong Tan*, Anal. Chem. 2020, 15, 92, 10375-10380.

(6) Engineering stability-tunable DNA micelles using photocontrollable dissociation of an intermolecular G-quadruplex

Cheng Jin; Xiaojing Liu; Huarong Bai; Ruowen Wang; Jie Tan; Xuehui Peng; Weihong Tan*, ACS Nano, 12, 11, 12087-12093

 (7) Fluorinated DNA micelles: synthesis and properties

Jianmei Zou#; Cheng Jin#; Ruowen Wang; Hailan Kuai; Lili Zhang; Xiaobing Zhang; Juan Li; Liping Qiu*; Weihong Tan*, Anal. Chem. 2018, 11, 90, 6843-6850

 (8) Fluorinated molecular beacons as functional DNA nanomolecules for cellular imaging

Cheng Jin#; Ting Fu#; Ruowen Wang*; Hui Liu; Jianmei Zou; Zilong Zhao; Mao Ye; Xiaobing Zhang; Weihong Tan*, Chem. Sci. 2017, 8, 10, 7082-7086

 (9) Artificial base zT as functional “element” for constructing photore-sponsive DNA nanomolecules

Ruowen Wang#; Cheng Jin#; Xiaoyan Zhu; Liyi Zhou; Wenjing Xuan; Yuan Liu; Qiaoling Liu; Weihong Tan*, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2017, 27, 139, 9104-9107