Jian Shen, Ph.D.
Scientist, Molecular Modeling
Aventis Pharmaceuticals, Inc
Dr. Jian Shen is a scientist in the Chemistry department at Aventis Pharmaceuticals Inc. He is a graduate of Shanghai University of Technology, where he studied mechanical engineering. He received his M.E. in applied chemistry in 1982 from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Ph.D in chemistry from University of Houston in 1990. Following two years as a post-doctoral fellow at the Baylor College of Medicine, he joined Stering Winthrop Pharmaceutical Research Division in Pennsylvania. In 1995, he joined Marion Merrill Dow in Cincinnati, OH, a precedent company of Aventis. Dr. Shen has been working in the areas of computational chemistry and molecular design since his graduate study. He has authored and co-authored 25 scientific papers.
Abstract: While many opinions can be expressed on the future of Chinese medicine, knowledge of successful instances in which plant-based medicine has been used is indispensable because of the complicated nature of drug development. I will give an overview of the discovery and development of a plant-based drug, flavopiridol. Flavopiridol is an anticancer drug currently under more than ten Phase I and Phase II studies at NCI, Duke U., U of Chicago, U. of Iowa, U. Of Maryland, etc. More recently, it has also showed a promising and entirely new approach to fight HIV and other viruses. This potential drug is a product of industry, government, and academia collaboration. It has already been subjected to applications of various modern drug-designing technologies. The rigorous scientific studies have transformed a nature extract from an India tree bark into the first CDK targeted low-toxic anticancer drug in clinic. I will discuss several collaborations and technologies that have helped the advance of the flavopiridol project. These include an x-ray crystallography study with Prof. S. H. Kim at UC Berkeley, a study of flavopiridol side effects with Prof. K. E. Barrett at UCSD, HTS data analysis and computer modeling.