主要从事微生物天然产物的研究，致力于阐明由大型模块化合成酶合成的次级代谢产物的生物合成途径，在解析微生物天然产物生物合成机制的基础上发现并设计新颖的酶催化工具，挖掘天然产物的成药潜力

1.Pengwei Li#, Dacheng Wang# , Lu Guo#, Yanru Chen#, Huijin Mao, Zelian Zhao, Min Wang, Meng Chen, Zhengren Xu, Binju Wang*, Defeng Li*, Yihua Chen*, Oxidative cleavage of hexopyranose by a TIM-barrel isomerase. Nature Catalysis. 2025 (Accepted）

2.Dacheng Wang#, Huijin Mao#, Zelian Zhao, Lilu Liu, Yihua Chen*, Pengwei Li*, Reprogramming of the aurantinin polyketide assembly line to synthesize auritriacids by excising an atypical enoyl-CoA hydratase domain. Advanced Science, 2024, (11) 2401708

3.Pengwei Li, Meng Chen, Wei Tang, Zhengyan Guo, Yuwei Zhang, Min Wang, Geoff P Horsman, Jin Zhong, Zhaoxin Lu, Yihua Chen*. Initiating polyketide biosynthesis by on-line methyl esterification. Nature Communications 2021, 12(1): 4499

4.Zhengyan Guo#, Pengwei Li#, Guozhu Chen#, Chao Li, Zhenju Cao, YuweiZhang, Jinwei Ren, Hua Xiang, Shuangjun Lin, Jianhua Ju, and Yihua Chen*. Design and biosynthesis of dimeric alboflavusins with biaryl linkages via regiospecific C-C bond coupling. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2018, 140(51):18009-18015

5.Lilu Liu#, Wenzhao Wang#, Meng Chen, Yuwei Zhang, Huijin Mao, Dacheng Wang, Yihua Chen, Pengwei Li*. Characterization of three succinyl-CoA acyltransferases involved in polyketide chain assembly. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, 2023, 107(7): 2403-2412

6.Yuwei Zhang#, Pengwei Li#, Yue Ma, Jun Wang, Yihua Chen*. Artificial intelligence accelerates the mining of bioactive small molecules from human microbiome. Clinical and Translational Medicine, 2022, 12(8): e1011  

7.Dacheng Wang#, Pengwei Li#, Jia-Lei Yan, Huijin Mao, Lilu Liu, Min Wang, Meng Chen, Tao Ye, Yihua Chen* Assigning the stereochemical structures of aurantinin A and B with the assistance of biosynthetic investigations. Organic Chemistry Frontiers, 2022, 9(21): 5949-5954

8.Zhilong Zhang#, Pengwei Li#*, Min Wang, Yan Zhang, Bian Wu, Yong Tao, Guohui Pan*, Yihua Chen*. Dissecting indigoidine synthetase to develop a biocatalyst for enantiomerically pure (S)-3-aminopiperidine-2,6-dione preparation. mLife. 2022, 1(2): 146-155

9.Xinli Li, Yue Tang,Yong Ding, Pengwei Li*, Yihua Chen*. Engineering the C3N pathway as a short detour for de novo NAD+ biosynthesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Fermentation, 2023, 9(10): 886  

10.Yiwei Chen#, Xiaochen Liu#, Fengxia Lv, Pengwei Li*. Characterization of three regulatory genes involved in enduracidin biosynthesis and improvement of enduracidin production in Streptomyces fungicidicus. Journal of Applied Microbiology , 2019, 127(6):1698-1705

11.Pengwei Li, Zhengyan Guo, Wei Tang, Yihua Chen*. Activation of three natural product biosynthetic gene clusters from Streptomyces lavendulae CGMCC 4.1386 by a reporter-guided strategy. Synthetic and Systems Biotechnology, 2018, 3(4):254-260

已经培养硕士研究生2名

1、国家重点研发计划子课题，高效生物合成途径设计及生命核心途径重构，2019.7-2024.6；

2、国家自然科学基金青年基金，Aurantinin中特殊碳链骨架的形成机制研究，2021.1-2023.12；

3、中国科学院战略生物资源服务网络计划生物资源衍生库项目子课题，微生物未知代谢物基因表达库，2021.4-2024.10；

4、中国科学院科技创新重点部署项目，皮肤癣病治疗药物的研发，2022.1-2023.12；

5、国家重点研发计划子课题，生物农药高效细胞工厂构建，2023.12-2028.11；

6、国家自然科学基金面上项目, 载体蛋白上丙二酸单酰基的甲酯化催化机制的研究，2024.1-2027.12；

7、中国科学院青年创新促进会，2023.1-2027.1；

8、中国科学院基础研究领域青年团队子课题，高致死率真菌耐药基础与高耐药屏障抗菌策略研发，2024.7-2029.7；

9、国家重点研发计划子课题，合成微生物组的工具箱设计与开发，2024.12-2029.11；