Title: Developing New Methods for Early Diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease by Targeting Pathological Protein Aggregates

Time: 15:00-16:30, Wednesday, February 26, 2025

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

Personal Profile: Liu Cong

Liu Cong received his Bachelor's degree from Jilin University and his Ph.D. from Peking University. He then pursued postdoctoral research at UCLA&HHMI in the United States. Currently, he serves as a researcher and doctoral supervisor at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Biology and Chemistry, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. His research has long focused on using interdisciplinary approaches combining chemistry and biology to study the mechanisms of protein self-assembly and aggregation and their pathogenic roles in neurodegenerative diseases. He has conducted research in three directions: the structural basis of pathological protein aggregation, the interaction mechanism between chemical molecules and protein aggregates, and the development of molecular probes targeting pathological protein aggregation, achieving certain results. In the past five years, he has published over 80 high-level papers, including nearly 60 as (co-)corresponding author in journals such as Cell, Nature Chemical Biology (3 papers), Nat Struct & Mol Biol (3 papers), PNAS (8 papers), JACS (3 papers), ACIE (3 papers), Nat Commun (9 papers), Cell Research (5 papers), and Molecular Cell. He has been invited to write reviews and perspectives on the mechanisms of pathological protein aggregation and chemical regulation for journals such as Nat Rev Neurosci, Cell, Chem Rev, and Chem Soc Rev. He was also invited to organize a special issue on "Chemical Biology of Protein Aggregation and Phase Separation" for Curr Opin Chem Biol. He has received support from multiple national and local funding projects, including the Basic Science Center Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Key Research and Development Programs of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Major Protein Projects, Major Instrumentation Program and General Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Major Programs of the Natural Science Foundation of China, Major Special Projects of the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission, and the Youth 863 Plan of the Ministry of Science and Technology.