Biography
Dr. Qi Hu received his bachelor’s degree in pharmaceutical sciences and master’s degree in medicinal chemistry from the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China. He then joined the School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University and received his doctoral degree in biology in 2014. In 2015, he joined Prof. Kevan Shokat’s lab in the University of California, San Francisco for postdoctoral training. Dr. Hu was awarded the prestigious Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2015. Since 2019, Dr. Hu has been a tenure-track assistant professor in the School of Life Sciences at Westlake University.
Research
The Hu lab is interested in using biological and chemical tools to study the molecular mechanisms of cell signaling, and developing chemical tools and drugs based on the understanding of the molecular mechanisms. The research in the Hu lab is currently focusing on the following directions:
1. Protein lipidation and lipid metabolism:
(1) To understand the structure, function and regulatory mechanism of enzymes involved in protein lipidation and lipid metabolism.
(2) To explore the effects of protein lipidation on protein localization and function.
(3) To design chemical tools to study protein lipidation and lipid metabolism.
(4) To develop selective regulators of disease-related protein lipidation enzymes.
2. Small molecule drug development:
(1) To develop small molecule inhibitors targeting essential enzymes of coronaviruses.
(2) To explore new strategies for anticancer drug development.
Representative Publications
1. Hou, N., Shuai, L., Zhang, L., Xie, X., Tang, K., Zhu, Y., ... Shi, P. Y.*, Bu, Z.*, Huang, J.* & Hu, Q.* (2023). Development of highly potent non-covalent inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro. ACS Cent. Sci., 9(2), 217-227. (* co-corresponding author)
2. Dai, S. A.#, Hu, Q.#, Gao, R.#, Blythe, E. E., Touhara, K. K., Peacock, H., ... & Shokat, K. M. (2022). State-selective modulation of heterotrimeric Gαs signaling with macrocyclic peptides. Cell, 185(21), 3950-3965. (# co-first author)
3. Hou, N., Peng, C., Zhang, L., Zhu, Y., & Hu, Q. (2022). BRET-based self-cleaving biosensors for SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro Inhibitor Discovery. Microbiology Spectrum, e02559-21.
4. Hu, Q., Shokat, K.M. (2018). Disease-causing mutations in the G protein Gαs subvert the roles of GDP and GTP. Cell 173, 1254-1264.e11.
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