Runming WANG

As an assistant professor, Dr. Wang joined the Institute of Biopharmaceutical and Health Engineering at Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School in February of 2022 and engaged in the interdisciplinary research of bioinorganic chemistry, material chemistry, and microbiology, and is committed to expanding the applications and development of inorganic and small molecule drugs in biomedicine.

During his doctoral and postdoctoral studies, he fought against antimicrobial resistance (AMR) by meticulously designing and identifying metal-based inhibitors targeted at multidrug-resistant superbugs. He and his colleagues verified the feasibility of identified metallodrugs to restore the effectiveness of conventional antibiotics against superbugs carrying resistant determinants i.e., Metallo-β-lactamases and/or mobilized colistin-resistant enzymes, and they used chemical and structural biological methods to decipher the unique metal replacement mechanisms. These findings have huge potential for clinical use.

During the influenza pandemic, Dr. Wang and his colleagues at HKU expanded the arsenal against COVID-19 using metallodrugs as a powerful weapon. By targeting multiple conserved viral proteins in SARS-CoV-2, bismuth-based metallodrugs exhibit broad-spectrum antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 (and its variants) and other seasonal coronaviruses and ameliorate virus-induced pneumonia. Above all, he successfully converted bismuth-based drugs into the world’s first metal-based oral anti- SARS-CoV-2 drug, with favorable anti-viral efficiency in vivo.