"Problems are the starting points of innovation, but also the sources of innovation", "raising a problem is often more important than solving one". In the "Question and Guess" academic activity of the 2nd Pilot Program 2.0 held by the Ministry of Education recently, project "Developing End-To-End AI Accelerated Metaphase Drug Design Methodology" of Fan Jigang, Biomedical Science Division of Zhiyuan College, SJTUwon the special prize (instructor: Zhang Jian, Lu Shaoyong, School of Medical).
Based on the unique allosteric sites of protein machines and the advantages of AI in large-scale model construction and key feature extraction, Fan hopes to develop and integrate a whole set of allosteric drug design methodologies, including potential allosteric pocket discovery, allosteric affinity detection, lead compound design and optimization, and promote the end-to-end trend of allosteric drug design. He hopes this supposition could boost the development of innovative medicine and improve the comprehensive strength of our national basic medical science.
Fan majors in biomedical science student at Zhiyuan College, and chose computer science and technology as his second major. In the talent cultivation system of Zhiyuan honors program, which is inspired by “mission + curiosity”, and cultivation of academic interest + recognition of scholar identity, Fan devotes himself into frontier researches since his freshman year, and conducted lab researches from sophomore year, and started to conduct methodology researches on allosteric drug design under the guidance of Researcher Zhang Jian and Lu Shaoyong.
Zhiyuan College and School of Medicine have provided high-quality platforms for cross-disciplinary researches. Fan independently applied for several undergraduate research program of Zhiyuan Future Scholar Project, and attended research internship program at international top laboratory. During his undergraduate period, Fan ranked the first in his major in every academic year; he has published a number of SCI papers, and has won numerous honorary awards such as National Scholarship and A-level Scholarship at SJTU etc..
Fan mentioned, participating in this academic activity has encouraged him to make bold assumptions and explore scientific problems rationally; also it allows him to communicate with faculty and students from other universities, which has broadened his horizon and assisted him to realize that questioning, guessing and communication are critical cornerstones for scientific explorations.