Dr Stanley Cheng Xie (Australia) is the winner of the 2021 FAOBMB Young Scientist Award (Male)
Dr Stanley Cheng Xie
Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute,
The University of Melbourne
Stanley C. Xie completed his PhD in 2016 at the University of Melbourne under the supervision of Professor Leann Tilley. His PhD research focused on the molecular basis for artemisinin action and resistance in the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. His findings were published in journals including PNAS, PLoS Biology and Journal of Cell Science. In 2016, Stanley was awarded the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) Fellowship and the Fred Collins Award.
In the past 5 years, Stanley’s post-doctoral research has been aiming to translate his basic research findings into pre-clinical development of potential antimalarial drugs. He has worked with the Japanese pharmaceutical giant, Takeda Pty Ltd and Swiss-based not-for-profit organisation, Medicines for Malaria (MMV). Stanley travelled to Takeda Boston and worked to discover a new parasite-specific proteasome inhibitor to be used in tandem with artemisinin. In addition, he also collaborated with GSK Pty Ltd to identify potent and selective inhibitors of the parasite proteasome from GSK’s collection of proprietary compounds. In 2018, he relocated to the GSK Tres Cantos Open Labs and worked in Spain for half a year. Stanley has worked in both industry and academia to develop small molecule inhibitors through High Throughput Screens and Hit-to-Lead phases to treat malaria.
Stanley’s post-doctoral work has resulted in a number of publications, including first author papers in Nature Microbiology and Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. He is also the lead author of invited review articles in Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Targets and Trends in Parasitology. He co-authored several publications in journals such as Nature, Nature Communications and ACS Infectious Diseases. Stanley has been invited to speak at international conferences including the 14th International Congress of Parasitology (ICOPA2018) and the 69th American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) Annual Meeting in 2020.