Group News

  • 03/27/2026: Congratulations Thilini Fernando for receiving 2026-2027 Distinguished Dissertation Fellowship (DDF) award and Mayurika Mahendran for receiving 2026-2027 Distinguished Graduate Student Fellowship (DGSF) award.
  • 01/23/2026: Our full paper titled “Tumor-Selective and Chemical Activation Strategies for Nitrogen Mustard Prodrugs” authored by , Thilini Fernando and Xiaohua Peng was published in the Chemistry-A European Journal.
  • 01/21/2026: Congratulations Natalie Raschka, Amirabbas Jafari and Nicole Haddad for receiving Spring 2026 SURF award.
  • 12/15/2025: Dr. Xiaohua Peng delivered an invited talk on “Exploiting Oxidative Stress: H₂O₂-Triggered Boron Prodrugs and Vitamin C Synergy for Targeted Cancer Therapy” at Pacifichem 2025 (Honolulu, December 15–20, 2025).
  • 12/04/2025:Congratulations to Thilini Fernando for receiving 2nd place in the Graduate Research Poster Award at the American Chemical Society Local Section Milwaukee Poster Session.
  • 12/01/2025: Our full paper titled “H2O2–Responsive Anticancer Prodrug: Synthesis, Precision Deuteration in Search of In Vivo Metabolites, and Activation Pathway” authored by Eron Saxon, and Xiaohua Peng was published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.
  • 09/10/2025: Our full paper titled “Design and assessment of photoactivatable anthracene-based DNA interstrand cross-linkers for light-controlled anticancer activity” authored by Asad Uz Zaman , Thilini Fernando, Taufeeque Ali, and Xiaohua Peng was published in the Bioorganic Chemistry.
  • 09/01/2025: Congratulations Cody Miller, Natalie Raschka, Amirabbas Jafari and Nicole Haddad for receiving Fall 2025 SURF award.
  • 08/28/2025: Dr. Xiaohua Peng delivered an invited talk on “Exploiting Oxidative Stress: H₂O₂-Triggered Boron Prodrugs and Vitamin C Synergy for Targeted Cancer Therapy” at the 2025 ACS Publications Symposium: Frontiers at the Chemistry and Biology Interface (Beijing, China, August 28–29, 2025).
  • 06/07/2025: Congratulations Thilini Fernando for receiving 2025-2026 Graduate Student Excellence Fellowship (GSEF) award.
  • 06/01/2025: Congratulations Thilini Fernando for receiving the Sterling Pharma Graduate Student Travel Award for the ACS Great Lakes Regional Meeting 2025.
  • 05/10/2025: Congratulations Dr. Xiaohua Peng for being recognized as the Most Outstanding Faculty Mentor.
  • 24/03/2025: Congratulations Mayurika Mahendran for receiving Sterling Pharma Graduate Student Summer Support 2025.
  • 12/25/2024: Our full paper titled “A photo-inducible DNA cross-linking agent with potent cytotoxicity and selectivity toward triple negative breast cancer cell line” authored by Qi Zhang, Taufeeque Ali, Thilini Fernando, and Xiaohua Peng was published in the Chemical Research in Toxicology.
  • 11/04/2024: Dr. Xiaohua Peng delivered an invited talk on “Hydrogen Peroxide Responsive Organoborons and Their Biological and Biomedical Applications” at MilliporeSigma (Curiosities of Chemistry, November 4, 2024).
  • 10/21/2024: Dr. Xiaohua Peng delivered an invited talk on “Hydrogen Peroxide–Inducible DNA Cross-Linking Agents and Novel Combination Therapy for Targeting Cancer” at the 8th International Conference on Drug Discovery and Lead Optimization (Boston, October 21–23, 2024).
  • 8/20/2024: Congratulation to Taufeeque Ali, Thilini Fernando, and Xiaohua Peng on completing Summer 2024 NSF I-Corps program at UWM.
  • 8/17/2024: Dr. Xiaohua Peng delivered an invited talk on “Development of ROS-Responsive Prodrugs and Novel Combination Therapy for Targeting Cancer” at the 2024 CAPA Summer Symposium (University of Colorado Boulder, August 17, 2024).
  • 8/2/2024: Congratulation to Taufeeque Ali for defending his thesis today and completing his PhD. at UWM.
  • 7/6/2024: Our full paper titled “Hydrogen peroxide responsive theranostics for cancer-selective activation of DNA alkylators and real-time fluorescence monitoring in living cells” authored by Eron Saxon, and Xiaohua Peng was published by European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.
  • 6/2/2024: Our full paper titled “Generation of Hydrogen Peroxide in Cancer Cells: Advancing Therapeutic Approaches for Cancer Treatment” authored by Taufeeque Ali, and Xiaohua Peng was published by Cancers.
  • 5/10/2024: Congratulations Taufeeque Ali for receiving 1st place and Thilini Fernando for receiving 3rd place in Poster Awards at the UWM Research Symposium.
  • 7/8/2023: Congratulations Alexis Kimberly Peterson for receiving Senior Excellence in Research Award (SERA) for the year 2023-2024.
  • 6/1/2023: Congratulations Eron Saxon for receiving 2023-24 Distinguished Dissertation Fellowship (DDF) award.
  • 5/20/2023: Congratulations Alexis Kimberly Peterson and Jatin Pandey for receiving Fall 2023 SURF award.
  • 5/1/2023: Congratulations Dhivyashree Senthil Murugan for receiving Outstanding Presentation Awards at UWM Undergraduate Research Symposium “The Effect of Indomethacin on the Cytotoxicity of Phenylboronic Acid Nitrogen Mustards in Triple Negative Breast Cancer”.
  • 4/27/2023: Congratulations Taufeeque Ali for receiving 3rd place in graduate posters at the Research Symposium 2023.
  • 2/17/2023: Taufeeque gave a talk on “Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) Activated Prodrugs: Mechanism and Combination Strategies” during Milwaukee Institute for Drug Discovery (MIDD) Symposium.
  • 12/27/2022: Congratulations Dr. Qi Zhang for completing PhD at UWM.
  • 12/7/2022: Congratulations Taufeeque Ali for receiving Milwaukee Institute for Drug Discovery (MIDD) Research Assistant Award Spring 2023.
  • 9/1/2022: Congratulations Dr. Asad Uz Zaman for completing PhD at UWM.
  • 8/20/2022: Congratulations Alexis Kimberly Peterson and Jatin Pandey for receiving Fall 2022 SURF award.
  • 8/15/2022: Congratulations Dhivyashree Senthil Murugan for receiving Senior Excellence in Research Award (SERA) for the year 2022-2023.
  • 7/27/2022: Congratulations Asad Uz Zaman for receiving the ACS DBC travel award for attending and presenting at the ACS Fall 2022 national meeting.
  • 7/20/2022: Our full paper titled “Photo-Reactivity of Binaphthalene Triphenylphosphonium Salts: DNA Interstrand Cross-Link Formation and Substituent Effects” authored by Qi Zhang, Zechao Lin, and Xiaohua Peng was published in the Chemistry—A European Journal.
  • 6/15/2022: Alexis Kimberly Peterson and Jatin Pandey joined Peng group as an undergraduate researcher in Summer 2022 to work with our graduate student Taufeeque Ali.
  • 5/25/2022: Congratulations Dhivyashree Senthil Murugan for receiving Summer 2022 SURF award.
  • 4/25/2022: Congratulations Qi Zhang for receiving Sosnovsky Award for Excellence in Graduate Research.
  • 3/15/2022: Our manuscript titled “Photo-Reactivity of Binaphthalene Triphenylphosphonium Salts: DNA Interstrand Cross-link Formation and Substituent Effects” authored by Qi Zhang, Zechao Lin and Xiaohua Peng was accepted by Chemical Research in Toxicology.
  • 12/25/2021: Congratulations Dhivyashree Senthil Murugan for receiving Spring 2022 SURF award.
  • 11/4/2021 : Congratulations to Prof. Peng for being selected for the prestigious Discovery and Innovation Grants (DIG) awarded by the UWM Office of Research.
  • 10/19/2021 : Eron Saxon’s review titled “Recent advances in hydrogen peroxide responsive organoborons for biological and biomedical applications” was published in ChemBioChem.
  • 8/1/2021: Congratulations Dhivyashree Senthil Murugan for joining Peng group as an Undergraduate Researcher to work with Taufeeque Ali in Fall 2021 (SURF Award).
  • 2/9/2021 : Our manuscript titled “Assessment of Phenylboronic Acid Nitrogen Mustards as Potent and Selective Drug Candidates for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer” authored by Heli Fan*, Muhammad Asad Uz Zaman*, Wenbing Chen*, Taufeeque Ali, Anahit Campbell, Qi Zhang, Nurul Islam Setu, Eron Saxon, Nicolas M. Zahn, Anna M. Benko, Leggy A. Arnold and Xiaohua Peng was accepted by ACS Pharmacology & Translational Science.
  • 1/19/2021 : Our full paper titled “Photoinduced DNA Interstrand Cross‐linking by 1,1’‐Biphenyl Analogues: Substituents and Leaving Groups Combine to Determine the Efficiency of Cross‐Linker” authored by Xiaohua Peng, Heli Fan, Huabing Sun, Qi Zhang was published by Chemistry—A European Journal.
  • 11/30/2020 : Heli Fan’s work titled “Photoinduced DNA Interstrand Cross-Linking by Benzene Derivatives: Leaving Groups Determine the Efficiency of the Cross-Linker” was published in The Journal of Organic Chemistry.
  • 11/20/2020 : Eron Saxon presented his graduate seminar on “DNA sequencing: Modern Techniques and Applications”.
  • 10/30/2020 : Taufeeque Ali Presented his graduate seminar on “Triple negative breast cancer: Molecular sub-types, Treatment, Challenges And Recent Advances”.
  • 10/11/2020 : Welcome to website of Xiaohua Peng research group.

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