Founder—— Dr.Jun Liao

Dr. Jun Liao a former professor at ShanghaiTech University and an assistant professor at Southwest Research Center. He has been engaged in structural biology research on membrane proteins (GPCRs, ion channels, and transporters) and precise drug design based on the three-dimensional atomic structure of biomolecules for over 20 years, and has deciphered the structures of multiple novel membrane proteins. During his doctoral studies, he studied under the guidance of Chinese structural biologists, Dongcai Liang and Wenrui Chang. Both are members of Chinese Academy of Sciences and the founders of Chinese structural biology. During his postdoctoral work, he studied under supervision of Robert F. Margolskee, a leading scientist in taste research in the United States, and Professor Youxing Jiang, a structural biologist of ion channels at Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Dr. Jun Liao was the first to decipher the three-dimensional atomic structure of the prokaryotic sodium-calcium exchanger, which regulates the homeostasis of intracellular sodium and calcium ion concentrations and its mechanism remains a puzzle for nearly 50 years due to lack of structural information. The elucidation of the structure of the sodium-calcium exchanger deepens people's understanding of the regulatory mechanisms of cardiac rhythm relaxation. In the industry, Dr. Liao Jun has served as a member of the Science Advisory Board for GE (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. and Wuxi Biortus Biosciences Co. Ltd. His expertise has helped many companies in establishing the eukaryotic cell protein expression platform.