Research Information
Research Interests
Yongfeng Tao is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and a member of the Developmental Therapeutics Program at the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. He received his PhD in Chemistry from Baylor University. He then completed postdoctoral training in chemical biology at Scripps Research.
Tao’s research spans chemical proteomics, covalent ligand discovery, and cellular mechanism-of-action studies. His previous work has produced first-in-class ligands for challenging targets, including the E3 ligase DCAF1 and the RNA methyltransferase NSUN2. His laboratory develops small-molecule probes to uncover druggable vulnerabilities in disease-relevant proteins and pathways, with particular interests in metabolic enzymes, proteasome regulation, tumor immunity, and covalent ligand design.
Selected Publications
- Tao Y, Felber JG, Zou Z, et al. Chemical Proteomic Discovery of Isotype-Selective Covalent Inhibitors of the RNA Methyltransferase NSUN2. Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 2023;62.
- Tao Y, Remillard D, Vinogradova EV, et al. Targeted Protein Degradation by Electrophilic PROTACs that Stereoselectively and Site-Specifically Engage DCAF1. Journal of the American Chemical Society. 2022;144:18688–18699.
- Tao Y, Reisenauer KN, Masi M, et al. Pharmacophore-Directed Retrosynthesis Applied to Ophiobolin A: Simplified Bicyclic Derivatives Displaying Anticancer Activity. Organic Letters. 2020;22:8307–8312.
- Tao Y, Reisenauer K, Taube JH, Romo D. Total Synthesis and Anticancer Activity of (+)-Hypercalin C and Congeners. Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 2019;58:2734–2738.
Full publication profile: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-