Department News

12/04/2025: Graduate Student Kan Li Wins the 2026 PhRMA Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship in Drug Discovery

We are delighted to announce that Kan Li, a graduate student in Rutgers Medicinal Chemistry program and a member of  Dr. Jun Wang’s lab, has been awarded the 2026 PhRMA Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship in Drug Discovery.  This highly competitive national fellowship recognizes exceptional young scientists poised to  make impactful contributions to  therapeutic innovation. Kan’s research in  Dr. Wang’s laboratory  exemplifies  the strengths of  our program in  antiviral and mechanistic drug discovery. His selection reflects not only his scientific excellence and productivity, but also the high caliber of research training within the Rutgers Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy. The fellowship will provide two years of stipend support to advance his doctoral studies. We congratulate Kan on this outstanding achievement and look forward to the continued impact of his work in the field of drug discovery.

9/1/2025: Tom Lin joins faculty

The Department of Medicinal Chemistry is pleased to announce that Dr. Zongtao (Tom) Lin will be joining us as an Assistant Professor, effective September 1, 2025. Dr. Lin brings a strong background in medicinal chemistry and chemical proteomics. After earning his B.S. in Pharmacy from Zhengzhou University and an M.S. from Peking University, he completed his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center. He then spent four years as a postdoctoral associate in chemical proteomics at the University of Pennsylvania before moving to Washington University in Saint Louis, where he most recently served as an instructor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics.  Dr. Lin’s research program focuses on developing Arginylation Targeting Chimera (ArgTAC) technology as a novel anti-cancer therapy. His work aims to establish ArgTAC as a new Targeted Protein Degradation (TPD) technology for drug development, clarify the role of arginylation in cancer, and create a public database of cancer arginylome profiles. His research will ultimately deepen our understanding of the arginylation pathway, paving the way for new therapeutic targets against human cancers.  More infromation on Dr. Lin’s research can be found at his website.

9/1/2025: Jun Wang wins Tetrahedron Young Investigator

Dr. Jun Wang has been awarded the 2026 Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award for Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry, one of the most prestigious and influential awards in the global chemistry community. This award, which is granted annually to a young scientist who has demonstrated “extraordinary creativity and outstanding contributions” in the field, is hosted by the internationally renowned publisher Elsevier. The award has a long history and broad impact, and has been conferred upon several leading chemists, including Nobel Laureates David MacMillan and Carolyn R. Bertozzi.  More information.