Academic Profile : Faculty
Asst Prof Tianshu Xiao
Nanyang Assistant Professor, School of Biological Sciences
Assistant Professor, School of Biological Sciences
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Education:
National University of Singapore
PhD, Supervisor: Dr. Yang Daiwen (August 2011 – May 2016)
Shanghai Jiao Tong University
B.Sc. Sciences (September 2007– June 2011)
Research Experience:
Boston Children’s Hospital / Harvard Medical School
Postdoctoral Fellow, Lab of Dr. Chen Bing (May 2017 – May 2022)
- Understanding structure and function of SARS-CoV-2 variant spike proteins by Cryo-EM and biochemical approaches
- Designing and optimizing trimeric soluble ACE2 as SARS-CoV-2 fusion inhibitor
- High-throughput screening for HIV MPER-directed fusion inhibitors and understanding the inhibitor bound structure by solution NMR
Nanyang Technological University
Postdoctoral Fellow, Lab of Dr. James P. Tam (April 2016 – April 2017)
- NMR structural studies of peptides extracted from Chinese herbs
National University of Singapore
PhD candidate, Lab of Dr. Yang Daiwen (August 2011 – May 2016)
- Understanding protein structure and dynamics by NMR
- Mechanistic study on dynamics and function of fatty acid binding protein
National University of Singapore
PhD, Supervisor: Dr. Yang Daiwen (August 2011 – May 2016)
Shanghai Jiao Tong University
B.Sc. Sciences (September 2007– June 2011)
Research Experience:
Boston Children’s Hospital / Harvard Medical School
Postdoctoral Fellow, Lab of Dr. Chen Bing (May 2017 – May 2022)
- Understanding structure and function of SARS-CoV-2 variant spike proteins by Cryo-EM and biochemical approaches
- Designing and optimizing trimeric soluble ACE2 as SARS-CoV-2 fusion inhibitor
- High-throughput screening for HIV MPER-directed fusion inhibitors and understanding the inhibitor bound structure by solution NMR
Nanyang Technological University
Postdoctoral Fellow, Lab of Dr. James P. Tam (April 2016 – April 2017)
- NMR structural studies of peptides extracted from Chinese herbs
National University of Singapore
PhD candidate, Lab of Dr. Yang Daiwen (August 2011 – May 2016)
- Understanding protein structure and dynamics by NMR
- Mechanistic study on dynamics and function of fatty acid binding protein
The Xiao lab leverages on a high throughput, fusion-based drug discovery platform to investigate and identify broad spectrum anti-viral fusion inhibitors (Xiao et al. Nat Chem Biol 2020; Xiao et al. Nat Struct Mol Bio 2021). Specifically, flavivirus infections, including dengue, is one of the most widely spread vector-born infectious diseases in tropical and sub-tropical area. There is no effective therapeutics to date. Lack of successful drug candidates can largely be attributed to two reasons: 1) Inefficient preclinical animal model for therapeutics development; 2) Lack of new druggable targets that can inhibit virus mechanism-of-action. There is a dire need for an improved approaches to develop curative anti-viral agents. Using a combination of cutting-edge high throughput small molecule drug screening, biochemical and structural biology approaches including Cryo-EM and NMR, as well as animal in vivo studies utilizing zebrafish and mice viral infectious models, the Xiao Lab will search for small molecule inhibitors that can block virus/host membrane fusion.
- Antibody-Guided Development of Broad Spectrum Dengue Fusion Inhibitor
- Rational design of broad-spectrum fusion inhibitors