Bowen Ke is a medicinal chemist and neuroscientist with ample experience in drug design, drug delivery, molecular recognition, and new diagnostics. Recently, the Ke group has published “Click and Release: Bioorthogonal Approaches to ‘On Demand’ Activation of Prodrugs” in Chemical Society Reviews ( IF = 40.182 ). And this research paper is featured on the cover of the journal. Professor Bowen Ke is one of the corresponding authors and Dr. Xingyue Ji is the first author. The other corresponding author is Professor Binghe Wang from Georgia State University. Notably, West China hospital and the State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy of Sichuan University is the first work unit of this research paper.

Prodrug, as a vital drug design strategy, can optimize the safety, target selectivity and other important properties of drugs. It has the potential for overcoming the inherent disadvantages, such as high toxicity, poor water solubility, short action time, poor stability and low bioavailability. In the past decade, bioorthogonal approaches have greatly enriched the activation strategies of prodrugs. Systematically expounding the progress of activation and release of prodrugs by using the bioorthogonal strategy “click and release”, this paper especially introduces the unique advantages of this strategy in “controllable release” and “enrichment trigger release” of traditional prodrugs and gasotransmitter drugs. The great potential and application prospects of this strategy in drug development are highlighted in the review.

Bowen Ke became a faculty of West China Hospital in 2014. Now he is a full professor in Sichuan University. His group is focused on the research of innovative translational medicine and has made significant contributions to the development of new drugs and diagnostics. He has used "Click Chemistry" to develop the first CO organic prodrug in the world. He has also developed molecular probes to visualize molecular events in life processes and diseases. As a result, he has received many academic prizes, including Youth Science & Technology Award of Sichuan University ( 2018 ), TAL Outstanding Scholarship Award ( 2018 ), the Chem-Chinese Pharmaceutical Association ( CPA )-Servier Young Investigator Award in Medicinal Chemistry ( 2017 ), and Chem-the Cell Press Prize ( 2016 ). Moreover, Professor Ke has been elected the deputy leader of the clinical research and translational medicine group in the anesthesiology branch of Chinese Medical Association. His research work has been reported in dozens of news media, such as Health News, People's Daily online and sina.com. The publication of this research paper indicates that Sichuan University has reached an advanced level internationally in the research and development of prodrugs.