Title: Natural Product Research in the Paradise of the Pacific

Time: 13:00-15:00, May 20, 2025 (Tuesday)

Venue: 404 Smart Classroom, Zhizhen Building, Ningbo University Health Science Center

Speaker Profile: Shugeng Cao

Dr. Shugeng Cao earned his bachelor’s degree from the School of Pharmacy, Hubei University of Chinese Medicine. He later pursued advanced studies at China Pharmaceutical University and Gifu Pharmaceutical University (Japan). After obtaining his Ph.D. from the Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore, he worked at the Singapore National Natural Products Research Centre (later renamed MerLion Pharmaceuticals) for nearly five years, including a research stint at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in the UK. From 2003 to 2013, he conducted research on natural medicines at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) and Harvard Medical School. In 2013, Dr. Cao relocated to the Cancer Research Center at the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine. Since 2015, he has served as Associate Professor and later Full Professor at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Hawaii at Manoa. His current research focuses on the development of natural medicines, ethnopharmacology, and functional small molecules in biological systems. During his tenure at the University of Hawaii, his work has been funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), foundations, and corporations. Dr. Cao holds 10 U.S. (and international) patents and has published 175 papers in prestigious journals such as Science, Nature, Cell, PNAS, Nature Medicine, Organic Letters, Journal of Natural Products, Phytochemistry, and Molecules.