Rate My Professor Rui Xiong

Rui Xiong is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy, University of Arizona. He joined the faculty in 2022 following postdoctoral training at the University of Illinois Chicago Center for Drug Discovery in 2019. Xiong holds a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Illinois Chicago (2016) and a BS in Medicinal Chemistry from Tianjin University (2011). In 2024, he was awarded the A. Jay Gandolfi New Investigator Award by the R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy for outstanding research contributions, including innovative anticancer and antiviral drug discoveries advanced to clinical trials, 11 issued US patents and 6 pending, creation of two BS Pharmaceutical Sciences courses, and student mentoring. As a member of the Graduate Faculty, he teaches courses including Medicinal Chemistry I (PCOL 826A), Drug Hunting for Beginners (PCOL 488), Introduction to Pharmacology (PCOL 501), Contemporary Topics in Drug Discovery (PCOL 530), and Pathophysiology (PCOL 838).

Xiong's research employs structure-based design of bioactive molecules to target disease-causing proteins and genes, utilizing biochemical, biophysical, cellular assays, X-ray crystallography, and computational modeling. The Xiong lab focuses on translational projects such as potent SARS-CoV-2 papain-like protease (PLpro) inhibitors licensed to pharmaceutical companies; small molecules sensitizing cold tumors to immune checkpoint inhibitors via mismatch repair deficiency (MLH1 targeting) for neoantigen presentation; novel covalent warheads and electrophilic scaffolds for undruggable oncogenic targets like KRAS G12D; and cheminformatics-integrated rational drug design. Key publications include "Non-Covalent Inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 Papain-Like Protease (PLpro): In Vitro and In Vivo Antiviral Activity" (2024), "Do Molecular Fingerprints Identify Diverse Active Drugs in Large-Scale Virtual Screening? (No)" (2024), "Structure-Guided Design and Synthesis of Pyridinone-Based Selective Bromodomain and Extra-Terminal Domain (BET)-First Bromodomain (BD1) Inhibitors" (2024), "Mechanism of Allosteric Modulation of Nicotinamide Phosphoribosyltransferase to Elevate Cellular NAD+" (2023), and contributions to Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (e.g., 2016, 59, 219-237; 2017, 60, 1325-1342). His scholarship garners over 1,200 Google Scholar citations, influencing medicinal chemistry, drug discovery, chemical biology, and oncology.