Biography

Dr Lujuan Xu got her bachelor and master degree from Zhengzhou university in 2014 and 2016, respectively. During the time from 2014-2016, she was a visiting student in Peking university with Prof. Jian Pei and conducted her master thesis there with the focus of development of new OFET and OLED material. Since 2017, she joined Max Placnk Institute for Polymer Research (MPIP) to pursue her PhD with Prof. Dr. Tanja Weil. Her research in MPIP focuses on the development of new chemical methodologies for site-selective protein modification. In 2021, she got her doctor degree and continue to work as a postdoc researcher in the same group. In 2022, she joined the Hangzhou Institute of Medicine, Chinese Academy of Sciences, as a assistant profesor. She was selected as Zhejiang Province Young Talents program in 2023. Her research develops innovative synthesis concepts for the production of functional nucleic acid-based materials through elegant molecular design to solve future challenges in biomedicine and mmaterial science.

Research Interests

1. Aptamer-Drug Conjugate for Targeted Cancer Therapy

The aptamer is a single-strand DNA molecule that can fold into specific 2D or 3D structure, targeting a specific biomaker on cancer cells. Compared to the conventional antibody, aptamer bears the advantages of easy synthesis, better chemical stability with lower molecular weight, and can be synthesized via chemical reactions, thus it is reasonable to state that aptamers are one kind of “chemical antibody”. Based on its excellent targeting abilities, aptamers can be modified with various cytotoxic drugs to prepare aptamer-drug conjugate (ApDC). In this way, the cytotoxic drugs can be delivered specifically to cancer cells without causing side effects to normal cells, which is the concept of precision cancer therapy. Therefore, our research focuses on the development of innovative synthetic concepts for the preparation of novel ApDC with improved features, such as better targeting specificity against cancer cells, higher stability again enzyme degradation, longer circulation time in blood stream and so on, for targeted cancer therapy.

2. Radionuclide Drug Conjugates

Radionuclide Drug Conjugates (RDCs) hold the potential to transform cancer treatment by offering effective, precise treatment and diagnosis with minimal side effects. RDCs can deliver radiation much more effectively and target tumors in a manner that greatly reduces side effects, attacking only the cancerous cells. By taking advantage of the excellent targeting ability of apatmer, apatmer -based RDCs avoid destroying healthy tissue and deliver much more damage to cancerous cells with causing side effects to normal cells.  Therefore, we are committed to developing new strategies to combine aptamer and radionuclide to merge the advantages of both components to prepare aptamer-based RDCs for targeted cancer therapy.

3. Site-selective protein modification

Inspired by Nature, scientists have devised many strategies to emulate Nature’s elegance and explore precise protein bioconjugates by chemical design with entirely new structures and functions. In this way, the Nature and synthetic world can be bridged so that the advantages from both components can be combined synergistically to provide a new perspective for devising novel protein-based hybrid materials for broad disciplines, ranging from therapy, imaging, sensing, biotechnology, and material sciences. Therefore, my research focuses on the development of novel chemical strategies for site-selective protein modification to prepare precision protein conjugates for various biomedical applications. These well-defined protein conjugates will offer great prospects for a wide range of fields including biomedicine, bioimaging, biosensing and materials science. In this regard, our research focuses on developing new chemical strategies to achieve protein modification in a site-selective fashion so that the advantages of both components can be combined to prepare various protein hybrid materials for more advanced biomedical applications.

Selected Publications

(1)Xu, L.;Kuan, S. L.; Weil, T.*, Contemporary Approaches for Site-Selective Dual Functionalization of Proteins, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.,2021, 60, 13757-13777.

(2).Xu, L.; Silva, M. J. S. A.; Gois, P. M. P.; Kuan, S. L.*; Weil, T.*,  Chemoselective cysteine or disulfide modification via single atom substitution in chloromethyl acryl reagents.Chem. Sci.2021, 12, 13321-13330.

(3). Xu, L.; Raabe, M; Zegota, M. M.; Nogueira, J. C. F.; Chudasama, V.; Kuan, S. L.*; Weil, T.*.Site-selective protein modification via disulfide rebridging for fast tetrazine/trans-cyclooctene bioconjugation.Org. Biomol. Chem.; 2020, 18, 1140-1147.

(4). Zhou, Z.; Maxeiner, K.; Moscariello, P.; Xiang, S.; Wu, Y.; Whitfield, C. J.; Xu, L.; Kaltbeitzel, A.; Han, S.; Mücke, D.; Qi, H.; Wagner, M.; Kaiser, U.; Landfester, K.; Lieberwirth, I.; Ng, D. Y. W.*; Weil, T.* In Situ Assembly of Platinum(II)-Metallopeptide Nanostructures Disrupts Energy Homeostasis and Cellular Metabolism. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2022, 144,12219-12228.

Contact: xulujuan@him.cas.cn