Two Ph.D. graduate students, Mr. Wei Zhang and Ms. Xizheng Jiang, from Dr. Lei Fu’s research group reported novel families of antibacterial agents on the European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (EJMC, IF: 3.193). In the first Short Communication paper, Ms. Jiang synthesized and screened thirteen benzofuran-based derivatives, and found that four compounds exhibited favorable antibacterial activities. In the second Original article, Mr. Zhang utilized the Evans amide and Davis asymmetric oxidation to prepare a novel family of chiral 2-(substituted-hydroxyl)-3-(benzo[d]oxazol-5-yl) propanoic acid derivatives and demonstrated a broad spectrum of in vitro activities against Gram-positive and negative bacteria. These findings have attracted certain attention from the related scientific communities. Professor James P. Collman from Stanford University points out that these structurally novel chemical entities have demonstrated unique antibacterial activity, they are worthy of further development. 
Part of this research was financially supported by the National Comprehensive Technology Platforms for Innovative Drug R&D (2009ZX09301-007). Some of the initial antibacterial experiments were performed with the help of students from Professor Fengsheng Zhao’s laboratory (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)