معرفی
Jana Shen is a Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, where she leads an interdisciplinary research group at the intersection of chemistry, biology, physics, and computer science. Her lab develops and applies advanced simulation and data science tools to understand biomolecular mechanisms and accelerate drug discovery.
Education:
- Postdoc, The Scripps Research Institute (2003–2007)
- PhD, University of Minnesota at Twin Cities (1999–2003)
- MS, University of Calgary, Canada (1996–1999)
- Diplom-Chemie, Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Germany (1991–1995)
Her research focuses on molecular simulation, data science, and computational biophysics, with applications in kinases, GPCRs, transmembrane transporters, and pH-responsive materials. She has pioneered the development of continuous constant pH molecular dynamics (CpHMD) methods and their applications in drug design and biomolecular mechanisms.
The recent publications highlight a strong trend in computational drug discovery, particularly in covalent inhibitors, opioid receptor mechanisms, antiviral design, and the integration of machine learning with molecular dynamics. These works span high-impact journals such as eLife, JACS, Nature Communications, and ACS journals.
Scientific Awards:
- National Science Foundation CAREER Award
- American Chemical Society HP Outstanding Junior Faculty Award
- Junior Faculty Research Award (University of Oklahoma, 2008, 2009)
- Phi Kappa Phi, University of Minnesota
- Louise T. Dosdall Graduate Fellowship
- Nova Graduate Fellowship
Dr. Shen has mentored numerous PhD students and postdoctoral fellows, many of whom have gone on to successful careers in academia and industry. Her research is supported by major agencies including the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and FDA. She leads the Shen Lab, which actively develops open-source tools such as DeepCys, CpHMD, and PKAD-3, and maintains databases for covalent ligandability and pKa predictions.
