Peng Chen Group — Protein chemical biology

An introduction to Peng Chen group

The Peng Chen Group is located in Building C of the College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering at Peking University. The group continuously drives the frontier of live-cell chemistry to enable the real-time study of protein functions in both health and disease. By systematically integrating genetic code expansion (GCE) with bioorthogonal chemistry, the group probes and perturbs protein activities across living cells, animals, and patient tissues. Furthermore, the laboratory has established bioorthogonal cleavage reactions (BCRs) as a transformative avenue for chemistry-enabled biological research and therapeutic innovation.

1. Prof. Peng R. Chen has won the Emil Thomas Kaiser Award from Protein Society

2. Congratulations to Yu Han and Yicong Ma on the publication of their work in Nature.

3. Congratulations to Jiangle Liu on the publication of their work in Nature.

4. Congratulations to Xin Wang on the publication of their work in Cell.

5. Congratulations to Rongfeng Zhu on the publication of their work in Science.

Focus of the group

Research

We work at the interface of chemistry and biology. Centered around leveraging the live-cell chemistry for mechanistic discovery and therapeutic innovations, we have developed bioorthogsonal reactions and chemical probes to understand protein functions and cell communications in health and disease. We employ this toolkit to study how the spatial-temporally organized human proteome is rewired in cancer as well as during immune responses, and we also exploit the therapeutic potential of these new discoveries. Research areas in the group include:

1. Bioorthogonal Cleavage Reactions

2. Bioorthogonal Proteomics

3. Bioorthogonal Therapeutics

4. Immuno-Chemical Biology

Bioorthogonal Cleavage Reactions

We are pioneering the development of bioorthogonal chemistry-based strategies for the precise spatiotemporal control of protein function.

Bioorthogonal Proteomics

To decipher the spatiotemporally organized cellular proteome, we have integrated bioorthogonal decaging chemistry, spatial-temporal omics, and in-cell protein interaction mapping into a unified chemical biology platform.

Bioorthogonal Therapeutics

Our research in bioorthogonal therapeutics aims to bridge the gap between chemical biology and precise therapeutics to overcome the fundamental limitations of current pharmacotherapies.

Immuno-Chemical Biology

Our research uses chemical tools as the core engine to develop technologies that enable real-time and spatially resolved resolution of immune cell interactions directly within tumors and autoimmune diseases