Natural Drug Discovery and Development Group Alumni

Dr. Jing Li obtained her BSc degree in the Guangdong Pharmaceutical University and her MSc degree in the Jinan University. She joined Prof. Kwok's laboratory in August 2020 as a PhD student working on understanding the relationship/role(s) of RCC1 protein in cancer biology and completed her PhD in December 2025. Currently, Dr. Li is currently working as a researcher in the Zhuhai People's Hospital in Zhuhai, China.

Dr. Siyuan Luo graduated with a Master degree in Botany from Sichuan Agricultural University. He joined Prof. Kwok’s laboratory as a PhD student in August 2022 and completed his PhD in October 2025. During his postgraduate studies, he was working on isolating the plant-based and venom-based bioactive molecules and characterised their bio-activities using human cell lines and C. elegans. Dr. Luo is currenlty working as a scientist in the Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Chengdu, China.

Dr. Weimin Zuo was born in Guangdong Province, China. She obtained her Bachelor degree in Clinical Medicine from the Southern Medical University and Master degree in Oncology from the Xiamen University. She joined Prof. Kwok's laboratory in September 2020 as a PhD student involving in a research project which focused on venom-based peptides drug development for cancer and stem cells therapy, and completed her PhD in December 2024. Currently, Dr. Zuo is currently working as a medical doctor in the Guangdong General Hospital in Guangdong, China.

Dr. Qiushuang Wu obtained her BSc degree in Chinese Medicine Resources and Development from the China Pharmaceutical University and her MSc degree in Chinese Medicine Science from the University of Macau. She joined Prof. Kwok's laboratory in May 2019 as a Research Assistant, and was a PhD student involving in a research project which focused on isolating natural products and screening their anti-cancer activities. Dr. Wu completed her PhD study in Prof. Kwok's laboratory at the University of Macau in June 2023 and is currently working as a postdoctoral fellow in the Shenzhen Bay Laboratory in Shenzhen, China.

Dr. Junnan LI obtained her BSc degree in Traditional Chinese Pharmacy from the China Pharmaceutical University and her MSc degree in Pharmacology from the Jilin University. She joined Prof. Kwok's laboratory in August 2019 as a PhD student and was involving in a research regarding the novel combination treatment strategy for tackling EGFR drug resistance in lung cancer. Dr. Li completed her PhD study in Prof. Kwok's laboratory at the University of Macau in Dec 2022 and currently holds a Lectureship in the College of Life Science at the Hunan Normal University.

Dr. Libin Guo obtained her BSc degree in pharmaceutical engineering from the Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and her MSc degree in developmental biology from the Fujian Normal University. She joined Prof. Kwok's laboratory at the Faculty of Health Sciences University of Macau in August 2016 as a PhD student, and graduated in June 2022. Currently, Dr. Guo is continuing her research as a postdoctoral scientist in Prof. Kwok's laboratory which focuses on understanding the relationship/role(s) of PD-L1 and other related transcription factors in cancer biology. Dr. Guo currently holds a Lectureship in the College of Life Sciences at the Longyan University.

Dr. Pengchen Chen obtained a BSc degree in Biotechnology from the Wenzhou University and a Master’s degree in Cytobiology from the Fujian Normal University. Upon completing his study for the Master’s degree, he embraced the opportunity to work in Prof. Kwok’s laboratory as a PhD student of Biomedicine since August 2017. He was working on cell functional studies in gastric neuroendocrine carcinoma and completed his PhD study in Prof. Kwok's laboratory at the University of Macau in Nov 2021. Currently, Dr. Chen is working as a postdoctoral fellow in the Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, China.

Dr. Muhammad Jameel Mughal obtained his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the Sindh Agriculture University, Pakistan. He later pursued his MPhil degree from the Sichuan Agricultural University, China. He worked under the supervision of Dr. Xi Peng and did his research on Aflatoxin B1 induced apoptosis in Chicken hepatocytes via death receptor pathway. His passion for biomedical sciences led him to join the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau, for a PhD program in Biomedicine, under the supervision of Prof. Kwok in September 2017. He was working on the molecular mechanisms of MCM protein family and its interactome in promoting breast cancer progression and completed his PhD study in Prof. Kwok's laboratory at the University of Macau in Dec 2021. Currently, Dr. Muhammad Jameel Mughal is working as a postdoctoral fellow in the George Washington University, USA.

Dr. Rui Ma obtained his BSc degree in Biotechnology from the Inner Mongolia University For The Nationalities and his MSc degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Shenyang Pharmaceutical University. After that, Rui worked at the Zhuhai United Laboratories Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd as the Insulin Aspart project manager for 5 years. Upon completing the project, Ma embraced the opportunity to work in Prof. Kwok’s laboratory as a Research Assistant from 2015 to 2016. He completed his PhD study in Prof. Kwok's laboratory at the University of Macau in January 2020. Currently, Dr. Ma is working in a venture capital/private equity investment pharmaceutical company in Shenzhen, China. 

Dr. Bin Li studied her PhD degree in Prof. Kwok's laboratory at the University of Macau from Aug 2014 to Nov 2017. She currently holds a Lectureship in the School of Medicine & Life Sciences at the Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine.

Dr. Henrique Neves studied his PhD degree in Prof. Kwok's laboratory at the University of Macau from Aug 2014 to Jan 2018. He is currently receiving his postdoctoral training at the King's College London, UK.

Dr. Ran Wei obtained her PhD degree from the School of Pharmacy, Queen’s University Belfast on the topic of “Peptidomic and Bioinformatic Studies on Neuroendocrine Tumour Cells”. This project was supervised by Prof. Chris Shaw and mainly focused on the molecular inventory of the secretory peptidome of tumour cells by application of high-throughput LC/MS/MS techniques and bioinformatics techniques. After her PhD, she joined Prof. Kwok's laboratory since 2016 as a Postdoctoral Fellow and worked on a number of cancer research projects. Dr. Wei has been promoted to Senior Postdoctoral Fellow in Aug 2019 and left Prof. Kwok's laboratory in Jan 2021. Currently, Dr. Wei holds a Lectureship in the School of Pharmacy & Medicine at the Changzhou University and continuously collaborates with Prof. Kwok and his PhD student on investigating the prognostic and therapeutic potential of ADAMTS5 in different types of cancer for prototype drug development.

Dr. Janet Wong graduated with Honors in Resource Chemistry, Major Natural Product Chemistry from the University of Malaysia Sarawak. She later obtained her PhD from the University of Nottingham. Her research involved discovering, identifying and evaluating secondary metabolites from medicinal plants found in Malaysia; particularly ones that target the HMG-CoA reductase pathway of cholesterol synthesis. Dr. Wong was a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Kwok's laboratory from 2016 - 2019. Dr. Wong was working in a pharmaceutical company in Macau -- Hovione until 2022 and currently based in Singapore. She continuously collaborates with Prof. Kwok and his PhD student on the anticancer biomolecules discovery project.

Dr. Xinping Xi was born in the Jiangsu province, China. He obtained his B.Sc. degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine from the Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, and received his PhD on the topic of “Venom-Based Peptides” from the Queen’s University Belfast, one of the top pharmacy schools in the United Kingdom. Dr. Xi was a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Kwok's laboratory, and he also served in the Proteomics Core as a core manager during that period of time. Now Dr. Xi is based in UK, he continues his research work with Prof. Kwok as a collaborator on the discovery of anti-cancer peptide drugs from animal venoms.

Dr. Peng Lyu has obtained his PhD from the Nature Drug Discovery group in the School of Pharmacy at the Queen’s University Belfast, UK. Dr. Lyu’s PhD research is in the areas of functional peptide discovery from the skin secretion of frogs. He joined Prof. Kwok’s research group in early April 2016 as a postdoctoral researcher. Currently, Dr. Lyu holds a Lectureship in the College of Biological Science and Engineering at the Fuzhou University.

Dr. Ravikiran Mahadevappa has obtained his PhD from Aarhus University, Denmark. He has previously worked in the Kidney Physiology group, Department of Biomedicine, Aarhus University under the guidance of Prof. Henrik Birn. Dr. Mahadevappa was a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Kwok's research group from Oct 2015 until Oct 2017. He is currently based in USA, and he continuous his research work with Prof. Kwok as a collaborator on analyzing the MCM protein family and its role in cancer.