Dr. Zeng has over 20 years of drug discovery and development experience, including 8 years with biotech companies. Before joining industry, Dr. Zeng was a staff scientist at National Institute of Health where he studied the structure and function of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCR). His work included the identification of key motifs, which activate muscarinic receptors, as well as the first discovery and characterization of muscarinic receptor dimerization.
In 1999, he took a team leader position at Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. in San Diego, California, where he worked on developing novel GPCR screening assay platforms and drug discovery projects. In 2004, he transitioned to principal scientist at Novasite Pharmaceuticals Inc. in San Diego, where he continued on different GPCR drug discovery projects.
Dr. Zeng joined St. Jude Children Research Hospital at Memphis, Tennessee in 2007 where he helped establish a world-class automation high throughput screening system and managed a screening and drug discovery team. The team pursued projects in all classes of targets. He went on to join Sanford Burnham Prebys in 2009, where he is Associate Director of High Throughput Screening and Compound Management.
Dr. Zeng received his PhD from the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Philips University of Marburg, Germany.
Career Highlights
2007-2009: Principal Scientist, Chemical Biology Department, St. Jude Children Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee
2004-2007: Principal Scientist, Novasite Pharmaceuticals Inc, San Diego, California
1999-2004: Team Leader, Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc, San Diego, California
1997-1999: Staff Scientist, NIDDK, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland