Position: Professor at School of Pharmacy, Tongji Medical College, HUST

Phone：+8617715830920

Email：caixiaofeng@hust.edu.cn

Academic areas: Synthetic biology of microbial natural products for drug discovery

Academic degree: Ph.D. in Biology

General Introduction （Professional Experiences）

Xiaofeng Cai is a young professor of Department of natural medicine at the School of Pharmacy in HUST since October 2018.

She was born in Shanxi, in 1983.

Xiaofeng Cai conducted her Ph.D. work from 2009.10-2013.10 at the University of Bonn in Germany with Prof. Dr. Joern Piel (now ETH Zurich, http://www.micro.biol.ethz.ch/people/lab-leaders/jpiel.html), studying biosynthetic and mode of action studies on the nonribosomal peptide antibiotic hormaomycin. From 2014.02-2018.10, she worked on function and production of secondary metabolites from entomopathogenic bacteria as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Prof. Dr. Helge B. Bode (http://www.bio.uni-frankfurt.de/48097568/Prof_-Helge-B_-Bode ) at the University of Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

Selected Publications:

1. Cai, X., Zhao, L. and Bode, H. B. * (2019). Reprogramming promiscuous nonribosomal peptide synthetases for production of specific peptides. Org. Lett. 21(7), 2116-2120. (IF: 6.492)

2. Hacker, C.,^＃Cai, X.,^＃ Kegler, C., Zhao, L., A., Weickhmann, A. K., Wurm, J. P., Bode, H. B.* and Wöhnert, J.* (2018). Structure-based redesign of docking domain interactions modulates the product spectrum of a rhabdopeptide-synthesizing NRPS. Nat. Commun.9 (1) DOI:10.1038/s41467-018-06712-1. (#, co-first author, IF: 12.353)

3. Cai, X., Nowak, S., Wesche, F., Bischoff, I., Kaiser, M., Fürst, R., and Bode., H.B.* (2017). Entomopathogenic bacteria use multiple mechanisms for bioactive peptide library design. Nat. Chem. 9, 379-386. (IF: 26.201)

4. Cai, X.,^＃Shi, Y. M.,^＃Pöhlmann, N., Revermann, O., Bahner, I., Pidot, S. J., Wesche, F., Lackner, H., Büchel, C., Kaiser, M., Richter, C., Schwalbe, H., Stinear, T.P., Zeeck, A., and Bode, H.B.* (2017). Structure and biosynthesis of isatropolones, bioactive amine scavenging fluorescent natural products from Streptomyces Gö66. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 56, 4945-4949. (#, co-first author, IF: 12.102)

5. Cai, X., Challinor, V. L., Zhao, L., Reimer, D., Adihou, H., Grün, P., Kaiser, M., and Bode., H. B.* (2017). Biosynthesis of the antibiotic nematophin and its elongated derivatives in entomopathogenic bacteria. Org. Lett.19, 806-809. (IF: 6.492)

6. Cai, X., Teta, R., Kohlhaas, C., Crüsemann, M., Ueoka, R., Mangoni, A., Freeman, M. F.,* and Piel, J.* (2013). Manipulation of regulatory genes reveals complexity and fidelity in hormaomycin biosynthesis. Chem. Biol. 20, 839-846. (IF: 6.743)

Awards and Honors:

Huazhong Scholar (Morning Star I, 2018)

Courses Taught

Biotechnological Pharmaceutics

Projects:

HUST Startup Fund for Young Scholar (2018.10-2021.10).