UB chemist Qing Lin elected AAAS fellow

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Qing Lin, PhD, University at Buffalo Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry, has been elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world's largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science.

Considered one of the most prestigious honors in the scientific community, Lin is among 471 AAAS members to be elected as fellows this year. 

He is being recognized for his distinguished contributions to the field of chemical biology, particularly for developing methods to study the processes of living cells and design potential therapies for diabetes and cancer. 

“The goal of my research program is to develop new chemical tools and principles to solve biological problems that are difficult, if not impossible, to solve using standard biological techniques alone,” Lin says. “I’m honored that our work has received recognition from such a prestigious institution as the AAAS.”

Lin is an international leader in the growing field of bioorthogonal chemistry, which uses chemical reactions to explore the inner workings of living cells without disrupting their normal biological processes. 

In a 2008 breakthrough study, Lin reported a robust bioorthogonal reaction that can be triggered by a flash of light, the first example of photoclick chemistry, a class of click reactions performed with the application of light. He and his team later used this technique to selectively label membrane proteins, such as G protein-coupled receptors in living cells, by controlling the position of laser beams.

This pioneering work in photoclick chemistry has been much cited and widely used in protein functionalization studies in the chemical biology field. 

Lin has founded two UB biotech spinoffs. Transira Therapeutics, founded in 2018, is developing a peptide hormone pill that can help Type 2 diabetes patients control their blood sugar while facilitating weight loss, without the need for injections. CovalaBio, founded in 2023, aims to insert electrophilic amino acids invented by Lin’s research team into therapeutic antibodies to create cancer treatments.

A highly productive scholar, Lin has published 86 papers in peer-reviewed journals, with total citations in excess of 8,500. He has eight issued patents and a long track record of funding through the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. 

Prior to joining UB in 2005, Lin served as a Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Scripps Research Institute. He received his PhD at Yale University, his master’s degree at the University of Pittsburgh and his bachelor’s degree at the University of Science and Technology of China.