Danny Chou

Danny Chou, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Endocrinology and Diabetes, Stanford University

Research Description: Dr. Chou’s research program integrates concepts of chemical biology, protein engineering and structure biology to design new therapeutic leads and generate probes to study biological processes. He joined the Stanford faculty in 2020. A key focus of the lab is insulin, an essential hormone in our body to reduce blood glucose levels. Dr. Chou’s team generates synthetic libraries of insulin analogs to select for chemical probes, and investigates natural insulin molecules (e.g. from the venom of fish-hunting cone snails) to develop novel therapeutic candidates. He is especially interested in using chemical and enzymatic synthesis to create novel chemical entities with enhanced properties, and leverage the strong expertise of his collaborators to apply their skill sets in the fields of diabetes research, cancer biology, immunology and pain research. Their ultimate goal is to translate our discoveries into therapeutic interventions in human diseases.

Selected relevant publications:

  1. Xiong X, Menting JG, Disotuar MM, Smith NA, Delaine CA, Ghabash G, Agrawal R, Wang X, He X, Fisher SJ, MacRaild CA, Norton RS, Gajewiak J, Forbes BE, Smith BJ, Safavi-Hemami H, Olivera B, Lawrence MC, Chou DH. A structurally minimized yet fully active insulin based on cone-snail venom insulin principles. Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2020 Jul;27(7):615-624. doi: 10.1038/s41594-020-0430-8. PMID: 32483339; PMCID: PMC7374640. 

  2. Zheng N, Karra P, VandenBerg MA, Kim JH, Webber MJ, Holland WL, Chou DH. Synthesis and Characterization of an A6-A11 Methylene Thioacetal Human Insulin Analogue with Enhanced Stability. J Med Chem. 2019 Dec 26;62(24):11437-11443. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.9b01589. PMID: 31804076; PMCID: PMC7217704.