E-mail:yxcheng@szu.edu.cn

Phone:+86（0）13510561051

Address: School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Health Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China, 518060

Title:

Dean of the School of Pharmacy, Shenzhen University Medical School, Shenzhen University;

Head of the Institute for Inheritance-Based Innovation of Chinese Medicine, Shenzhen University;

Director of the Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine Ingredients and Gut

Microbiomics; 

National Outstanding Young Scientists Fund (2015)

Top 2% scientist in the world (2019)

Executive director of the World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies (WFCMS) Chinese Medicine Chemistry Branch;

Professional Committee on Chinese Medicine and Natural Medicines of the Chinese Pharmaceutical Society; 

Biography:

Dr. Cheng received his BA in Henan University of Chinese Medicine (China, 1994) and received his MsD in Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (China, 1997, Supervisor: Prof. Chonghou Xiao). He then studied for PhD degree in Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences (1997-2000, China, Supervisor: Academician Jun Zhou). Afterwards, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Health Science Center, Peking University (2000-2002, China, Co-supervisor: Academician Qide Han). He then worked as a drug reviewer at the Center for Drug Evaluation, State Food and Drug Administration between 2002 and 2003. He joined the University of Jena as a Humboldt research fellow worked with Prof. Matthias Hamburger (2003-2005, Germany). Since 2008, he worked at the State Key Laboratory of Phytochemistry and Plant Resources in West China, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences. From 2016, Dr. Cheng was appointed as a Distinguished Professor by Shenzhen University.

Research Achievements and Interests:

Dr. Yong-Xian Cheng has long been engaged and devoted himself into the isolation and biological evaluation of substances from traditional Chinese herbs. He has made breakthroughs especially in the phytochemical investigation of plant resins, Ganoderma mushrooms and medicinal insects. So far around 15 medicinal species belonging to plant resins has been intensively studied by his group. For Ganoderma fungi, his group pioneered in the characteriazation of meroterpenoids and identified more than 630 ones accounting for 88% in the field. He is also interested in nonpeptidal small molecules from medicinal insects and nearly 800 metabolites were identified unveiling small-molecule chemical profiling of insects. He has published more than 300 papers (over 220 SCI), including 19 Org. Lett. publications, and is a leading researcher in the field of natural product chemistry in China. His H-index is 30. So far, he has applied for more than 100 patents and drug development targeting on pulmonary hypertension and renal fibrosis is undergoing.

Awards:

The First Prize of Natural Science of Yunnan Province (2006, ranked seventh)

The First Prize of Science and Technology Progress of Guangdong Province (2012, ranked third)

The First Prize of Chinese Medical Science and Technology (2015, ranked fifth)

The Second Prize of National Science and Technology Progress (2016, ranked eighth)

The First Prize of Science and Technology Progress of Yunnan Province (2021, ranked eleventh)

Research direction:

1. Identification of medicinal substances in traditional Chinese medicine under the guidance of treatment principles and methods

2. Molecular hybridization structure optimization guided by traditional Chinese medicine compatibility theory

3. Mechanisms of Traditional Chinese Medicine Regulating Major Diseases and Innovative Drug Development

4. Transformation of Traditional Chinese Medicine Interventions into Health Products for Non disease and Chronic Diseases

5. The modern life science essence of the restraining law of the Five Elements

Research Funding

1. NSFC Yunnan Joint Fund Key Project, "Discovery, Mechanism of Action, and Drug Release Study of TGF - β/Smads and Wnt/β - catenin Pathway Targeted Anti Renal Fibrosis Active Components in Yunnan Agarwood" (U23A20515), 01/01/2024 to 12/31/2027, ￥2,580,000.

2. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory, "Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Effective Ingredients and Gut Microbiotics of Traditional Chinese Medicine", 01/01/2024 to 12/31/2026, ￥3,000,000.

3. Shenzhen High level Talent Team Project (Peacock Team) "Substance Basis and Life Role of Insect Traditional Chinese Medicine" (KQTD2021081109021902), 10/01/2022 to 09/30/2027. ￥15,000,000.

4.The State Key Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China, “Re-understanding of Pharmacopoeia Chinese Medicinal Substances: Pharmacological Effects and Mechanism of Action of Ganoderma lucidum against Triple Negative Breast Cancer”. (82030115),01/01/2021to12/31/2025, ￥2,970,000

5. National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, “Unveiling the scientific implications of Chinese materia medica via discovery of bioactive compounds”.

(81525026) ,01/01/2016 to 12/31/2020,￥4,000,000 

Selected Publications:

1. Madhu Babu Sura, Yeting Zhou, Jijun Li,Yong-Xian Cheng*.Discovery of papyifuran A as an unusual cembrane diterpenoid from Boswellia papyrifera resin reveals EEF2 as a potent new drug target for fibrosis of multiple organs. Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B 2025, in press, doi.org/10.1016/j.apsb.2025.04.004.

2. Madhu Babu Sura, Yong-Xian Cheng*. Medicinal plant resin natural products: structural diversity and biological activities. Natural Product Reports 2024, 41, 1471–1542.

3. Jiao-Jiao Zhang, Fu-Ying Qin, Yong-Xian Cheng*. Insights into Ganoderma Fungi meroterpenoids openning a new era of racemic natural products in mushrooms. Medicinal Research Reviews 2024, 44, 1221–1266.

4. Shi-Gang Peng, Xiao-Ning Liu, Madhu Babu Sura, Yong-Ming Yan, Yong-Xian Cheng*. Mantidisflavin A: A riboflavin derivative featuring a 6/6/6/5/5 skeleton from the egg cases of the insect Tenodera sinensis saussure and its anti-renal fibrosis Activity. Organic Letters 2024, 26, 1316–1320.

5. Yong-Ming Yan#, Ji-Jun Li#, Yong-Xian Cheng*. Aspongopyrimidine A, a N‑peralkylated histidine zwitterion from Aspongopus chinensis against alzheimer’s disease targeting MAPRE3. Organic Letters 2024, 26, 1506–1510.