Professor Peiqing Liu, Principal Investigator

The team focuses on the investigation of pathogenesis of major diseases (including cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, neural diseases, etc.), pharmacological studies on potential therapeutic targets and innovative drugs, as well as screening and evaluation for bioactive compounds.

Major research interests
(1) Cardiovascular pharmacology;
(2) Traditional Chinese medicine pharmacology and endocrine pharmacology;
(3) Cellular and molecular pharmacology;
(4) Neuropharmacology.

Team members
The team consists of four professors, three associate professors, two lecturers, as well as more than 40 PhD and MS students. The team members have comprehensive research background and rich research experience in the field of pharmacology, toxicology and molecular biology.

Facilities
The laboratory is equipped with over 80 sets of scientific instruments, over 20 of which are worth more than 10,000 RMB. These hardware resources can fully meet the requirements for molecular biology studies, new drugs screening and evaluation, as well as animal experiments of pharmacodynamics.

Achievements
In recent years, the studies of the team have been funded by 13 projects of National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and the National Science and Technology Major Project of China “Key New Drug Creation and Manufacturing Program”, 9 major projects and team projects of Guangdong province, as well as 7 provincial and municipal foundations, and the team members have fulfilled the development of “Preclinical Pharmacodynamic Evaluation Platform” launched by the national project “Key New Drug Creation and Manufacturing Program”. The total research funding exceeds 20 million RMB. The team has also successfully built up “Guangdong Provincial Engineering Laboratory of Druggability Assessment and Evaluation” and “Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Druggability Assessment for Biologically Active Compounds”. More than 160 scientific papers have been published by the team, including 90 SCI indexed papers on top journals such as J Proteome Res, PNAS, Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol, Autophagy, Hypertension, J Gen Physiol and Br J Pharmacol. In addition, 9 patents have been authorized. Moreover, the team members as chief scientists or cooperators have received 3 research awards from the Ministry of Education of China and the government of Guangdong Province. A new drug “Tang Mai Jiao Tai Capsule” for the treatment of diabetes, which is developed mainly by the team, has been approved to clinical trials and is currently undergoing Phase Ⅲ clinical trials. The preclinical study of “Cryptotanshinione Capsule” for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, which belongs to the first type of new drug, has been completed based on cross team collaboration, and it is now waiting for the approval of clinical trials.

Technical Services：
With exquisite technology and talent advantages, Liu’s team can provide technical services for pharmaceutical companies and R&D institutions especially on screening and evaluation for bioactive compounds as well as pharmacodynamic evaluation for new drugs.