Dr. Xuexian Cui received her Bachelor's degree in Biotechnology from Taiyuan Normal University in June 2018. She completed both her Master's and Ph.D. degrees in Microbiology and Biochemical Pharmacy at the Institute of Microbiology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, under the supervision of Researcher Bian Wu. Her doctoral research focused on elucidating the catalytic mechanisms of metalloenzymes. Using the diiron oxidase AetD as a model system, she systematically investigated the enzyme’s catalytic promiscuity through a combination of product characterization, reaction pathway analysis, isotope labeling, and theoretical calculations. In June 2025, Dr. Cui joined Professor MaoLin Li’s research group at the College of Chemistry and the Frontier Research Center for New Organic Matter, Nankai University, as a postdoctoral researcher. Her current research centers on the design and application of artificial metalloenzymes.

Publications:

1. Cui X^#, Liu J^#, Pang C^#, Zhu T, Sun J, Cui Y, Wang W, Geng W*, Zhou J*, Wang B*, Wu B*, 2025. The origin of exceptional promiscuity of heme oxidase-like diiron oxidases. In peer review.

2. Cui X^#, Geng W^#, Jiang H*, Wu B*, 2022. Photobiocatalytic cascades for acylating N-heterocycles with natural amino acids via the 2-keto acids. Advanced Synthesis & Catalysis, 364: 4013–4019.

3. Li T, Cui X, Cui Y, Sun J, Chen Y, Zhu T, Li C, Li R, Wu B*, 2020. Exploration of transaminase diversity for the oxidative conversion of natural amino acids into 2-ketoacids and high-value chemicals. ACS Catalysis, 10: 7950–7957.