Professor/PI

Kan Ding is an active professor and a principal investigator in State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences (SIMM). He also serve as an Executive Vice Director of Zhongshan Institute for Drug Discovery, SIMM. He was granted the National Natural Science Foundation Distinguished Young Scholars of China in 2011. Dr. Kan Ding’s research mainly focuses on Function and mechanism of heparan sulfate synthetase C5-epimerase (Glce) , NDST in MASH and organ fibrosis. In addition, understanding of the structure and function, structure-activity relationship, targeting, and the mechanism underlying action of polysaccharides from traditional Chinese medicine, interaction between bioactive polysaccharide and gut microbiota are also included. In addition, he also tries to discover new target for glycan-based drug development and engage in carbohydrate based drug development. At present, there are 70 members in his group. Dr. Kan Ding got his M. Sc. degree in pharmacognosy in 1996 in China Pharmaceutical University, and achieved Ph. D. degree in organic chemistry in 1999 in Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese academy of sciences. In 1999, he did his postdoctoral training in Lund University in Sweden. Since 2001, he worked as a postdoctoral research fellow associate in University of California, Irvine and a research fellow in Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School in U. S. A. During the postdoctoral training, he embarked on the glycobiology study on the structure and function of cell membrane proteoglycan in tumor. In the end of 2005, he was recruited as a full professor by Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese academy of sciences. He succeeded in the grant application of National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of China in 2011. So far, he has obtained 34 grants, including State Key Program of National Natural Science of China, the National Natural Science Foundation of Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, National Natural Science Foundation, Major National Science and Technology projects: Major New Drug Candidate Drugs, National Science and Technology Major Projects for Key Techniques, Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, National High-Tech R&D Program of China, etc., and took part in 10 projects including National Program on Key Basic Research Project (973 Program). In addition, one book entitled “The structure, function their bioactive mechanism of polysaccharides from traditional Chinese medicine” has been issued under his general editorship. He also published three chapters in Advanced Medicinal Chemistry and the Extraction and Separation of Active Components in Traditional Chinese Medicine. He has published more than 220 papers, including on international journal, such as J Hepatol, J Am Chem Soc, Angew Chem Int Ed Engl, J Cell Biol, Adv Sci, J Biol Chem, Carbohydr Polym, and and filed more than 90 national and international patents.