Principal Investigator

Yulong Zhong is from Tianjin, China. He received his PhD degree in organic chemistry from Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China, in 2016. He then joined Dr. Gong’s group as a postdoctoral associate and got promoted to a research assistant professor in 2023. He is currently focusing on the synthesis and study of multiturn helical aromatic oligoamides as novel hosts for guest binding, catalysis and as transmembrane channels for ion and molecular transport.

Rashid Puthanpurayil is from India and received his Ph.D. from CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory in India. His doctoral thesis focused on Supramolecular and Medicinal Chemistry. As a postdoctoral associate, he has joined Dr. Gong’s group at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Currently, his research is focused on the synthesis, structural features and applications of novel helical/cyclic Aromatic Oligoamides.

Danbo got his PhD from Qingdao University of Science and Technology in 2023. Subsequently, he joined the Prof. Gong's group as a postdoctoral associate. His research focuses on developing and studying aromatic pentaamide macrocycles, which exhibit a high affinity for binding anions and have potential applications in anion transport.

Jillian is from Albany, NY and received her bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from SUNY Oswego in 2018. She joined Dr. Gong’s lab in 2018 and her research is focused on the synthesis of small molecules for the purpose of intracellular cryoprotection of cell lines.

Christina is from Syracuse, NY and received her B.S in chemistry from SUNY Oswego. She joined the Gong lab in 2021 where she majorly focuses on synthesis and characterization of foldamers. Her research is about the catalytic abilities and host-guest binding that our different foldamers possess. She is also studying a newly synthesized heptamer macrocycle which may show to have unique characteristics. The main techniques she uses are NMR and ITC to analyze and study the properties of our lab’s foldamers.

Cadnel Detchou is a dual citizen of Benin and USA. He received his BA in Biochemistry at Westminster College. He joined the research group of Professor Bing Gong in 2013 where he worked on cyclic aromatic tetraurea macrocyles and studied their binding properties with DNA. He received his Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry from the Gong lab in 2018. He is currently volunteering his time at the Gong lab to improve the design and binding properties of the tetraurea macrocycles with DNA. He is also working full time as a bioanalytical principal investigator at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.

Ruikai was born in Baoji, a historical city in China. After obtaining the BS Degree from Sichuan University in Organic Chemistry and the MS degree from Kansas State University in Biochemistry, he joined Professor Bing Gong’s group at the University at Buffalo, SUNY, working on the host-guest interaction and graduated with a PhD Degree in August in 2021. After that, he served as a postdoctoral fellow conducting related research on supramolecular chemistry at the same group. He is currently a senior organic chemist at AstaTech Inc.

Dr. Mark Kline has been continuously involved in research at the interplay of chemistry and biology and is an expert in supramolecular systems and peptidomimetic polymer synthesis. Mark serves as the Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of X-Therma Inc. (along with Dr. Xiaoxi Wei). X-Therma is a venture backed biotech company (HQ. SF Bay Area, sub. Austria, EU) pioneering a ground-breaking cold chain platform via a peptoid-based biopreservation technology, to bring living vaccines, IVF, cell & gene therapies, engineered tissues, and organs to patients off-the-shelf, thereby unleashing the grand potential of all regenerative medicines. The company has thus far received the FDA's Breakthrough Device Designation for 120-hour preservation and transport of the human kidney, a time length that would change how organ transplant is done today. Both Dr. Xiaoxi Wei and Mark have been awarded more than $14M in government grants as the PIs and raised more than $36M in private funding from investors to carry their mission forward to end the organ transplant waiting list. Mark's PhD work under Professor Gong focused on shape-persistent macrocycles that self-assemble with exceptionally high association constants and demonstrated the ability to pass ions across a lipid bilayer. As a Materials Postdoctoral Fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory under Dr. Ronald Zuckermann, Mark played a key role in a DARPA Fold F(x) project, making large strides in biomimetic nanoscience. In this work, Mark was able to develop and implement new synthetic methods that were able to turn a 2-week manual synthesis of a single 48mer peptoid into a less than 24-hour synthesis of 24 peptoids 48 monomers in length. As Vice Chair of the Berkeley Postdoctoral Entrepreneur Program, he guided UC-Berkeley postdocs and graduate students to begin their entrepreneurial journey. He also served as boxing club president at Allegheny College for 3 years during his undergraduate years.

Robert is from Lake Zurich, Illinois and received his BS in chemistry from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He joined Dr. Gong’s group in 2017 and his research focused on studying the supramolecular chemistry of aromatic oligoamides. He received his PhD in medicinal chemistry in 2022. Currently, he is a Senior Scientist at Abbott Laboratories.

Tom Sobiech received his PhD in chemistry from the University at Buffalo in 2023. Throughout his graduate career his primary focus was in supramolecular chemistry. Within this field he made contributions to understanding foldamers, with an emphasis on multiturn aromatic oligoamide foldamers and their corresponding macrocycles. His dissertation details novel research into the host guest chemistry of these molecules, primarily the ultrahigh binding affinity exhibited by multiturn aromatic oligoamide foldamers with cationic guests and the extremely strong positive cooperativity observed between cyclic aromatic oligoamides with cationic guests. Tom is currently employed as a Scientist at Intertek, where he manages one of their NMR facilities.

Victoria graduated with a Master's degree in Medicinal Chemistry in December 2023 at the University at Buffalo. Her research in the Gong Lab was on Cytotoxicity and Cryopreservation.

Xiaoxi Wei, Ph.D., Co-Founder & CEO of X-Therma is an award-winning American entrepreneur and inventor in biomimetic nanoscience and. To pursue her vision to enable “On-demand” organs, tissue and cell products, she completed PhD studies in biomimetic Chemistry at SUNY Buffalo, while successfully managing $8M in engineering projects. She founded X-Therma in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2014 to bring lab innovation to patients. Her inventions resulted in 20 issued global patents based on biomimetic materials and devices for subzero, ice-preventing preservation, and led to a recent FDA Breakthrough designation. She has served as PI or co-PI of 12 national and international innovation research grants, exceeding $14M from DoD, NSF, NIH, CIRM, and EU. She serves as a healthcare advisor for the UC Regents working group on innovation transfer and entrepreneurship, is a scientific advisor for Life Extension Foundation, and was the Vice Chair of the Younger Chemists Committee of the American Chemical Society (ACS), and Cal ACS Executive Committee Member. She is currently a distinguished member of the RULEBREAKER Society, in Germany.