You are welcome to attend the seminar, please find the details below:

Seminar : Methyl-cantharidimide Suppresses Cyclin-dependent Kinase 1 (CDK1) and Induces Oxeiptosis in Liver Cancer

Date: Jul 30, 2026 (Thu)
Time: 3:00pm – 5:00pm
Venue: Seminar Room 5, 6/F, HKUMed Academic Building, 3 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
Mode: In-Person
Enquires: Tel: 81000538；Email: scmevent@hku.hk
Registration: Here

Speaker:
Professor Jason, Zhe-Sheng Chen
Professor, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
St. John's University, USA

Moderator:
Professor Ning Wang
Associate Professor, Assistant Director (Research)
School of Chinese Medicine, HKU

Abstract:

Liver cancer remains one of the most lethal malignancies worldwide, with limited therapeutic options. In this seminar, Professor Chen will present his recent findings on methyl-cantharidimide, a novel synthetic derivative of cantharidin. His research demonstrates that this compound effectively suppresses cyclin-dependent kinase 1 (CDK1) activity, leading to G2/M cell cycle arrest in hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines. More intriguingly, it triggers oxeiptosis – a newly identified, non-apoptotic cell death pathway characterized by reactive oxygen species overproduction and mitochondrial dysfunction. These mechanistic insights position methyl-cantharidimide as a promising lead compound for developing novel targeted therapies against liver cancer.

About the speaker:

Professor Jason Zhe-Sheng Chen is a tenured Professor at St. John's University, USA, where he serves as the Director of the Tumor Pharmacology Laboratory in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and the Dean of the Institute of Biotechnology. He is also a doctoral supervisor. He is a globally renowned scholar in the field of multidrug resistance reversal in cancer, with his research primarily focusing on the mechanisms of tumor drug resistance and the development of resistance reversal agents. To date, he has published over 550 SCI-indexed papers, which have been cited more than 40,000 times, with an H-index of 98. He has been listed in both the "Career-Long Scientific Impact Ranking" and the "2023 Scientific Impact Ranking". He has been invited to deliver over 400 academic presentations at international conferences and academic institutions worldwide. He currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Drug Resistance Updates (5-year impact factor: 18.1), and holds editorial positions—including Editor-in-Chief, Senior Editor, Specialty Editor, and Associate Editor —for 8 other journals. He also serves as a peer reviewer for over 200 journals, including Science and Nature. He is an expert grant reviewer for funding agencies globally, including the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), and funding agencies in France, New Zealand, Hungary, Poland, the Netherlands, Canada, and Hong Kong.