Yaoqiu was born and grew up in Yiyang, Hunan, China.
He did undergradute research with Prof. Zhenfeng Xi and obtained B.S. of Chemistry in 2001 at Peking University. Under the supervision of Prof. Richard B. Silverman (inventor of Pfizer’s blockbuster drug Lyrica) at Northwestern University, he studied enzyme chemistry and got his Ph.D. in 2006.
With a strong interest in drug discovery, he then joined Abbott Laboratories/AbbVie as a senior research scientist. He conducted “structure and drug-like property relationship” studies for over 20 internal R&D projects and contributed to the discoveries of hepatitis C drug Viekira Pak and antileukemic drug Venclexta.
After worked at Abbott for over two years, he resigned and founded his own contract research company, MetabQuest. He built a medchem and organic synthesis lab in Beijing, China. He and his team have worked with pharmaceutical companies and research institutes on various medchem and preclinical projects. In addition, his lab has participated in several translational collaborations involving Harvard Medical School, University of Pittsburgh, Northwestern University, China Pharmaceutical University, Cambria Biosciences, etc. |
