Gengnan Li, Ph.D.

Principal Scientist

Gengnan earned her bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Beijing Normal University and subsequently pursued her Ph.D. training at the University of Florida under the mentorship of Dr. Steven Bruner. Her doctoral research was dedicated to the structural and functional analysis of macromolecules involved in natural product biosynthesis. Continuing her commitment to advancing the field of natural products, Gengnan furthered her training and scientific contributions in Dr. Ben Shen’s lab at the Scripps Research Institute. Here, she delved into the biosynthesis of anticancer drug leads such as the enediyne and leinamycin family natural products. Her research findings have been prominently featured in reputable journals such as Nature Chemical Biology, PNAS, and Organic Letters, as well as many depositions in the Protein Data Bank.

Gengnan joined Centivax in 2023. Leveraging her extensive experience and expertise in chemical biology, structural biology, and mechanistic enzymology, she spearheads biophysical characterization and protein science projects across Centivax's pathogen portfolio.