image: Rice's Han Xiao has been awarded the David W. Robertson Award for Excellence in Medicinal Chemistry by the American Chemical Society’s Division of Medicinal Chemistry.
Credit: Courtesy of Rice University.
Rice University’s Han Xiao has been awarded the David W. Robertson Award for Excellence in Medicinal Chemistry by the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Division of Medicinal Chemistry, recognizing Xiao’s pioneering contributions to therapeutic discovery.
The biennial award honors scientists under 40 who have played a significant role in developing novel therapeutic agents or concepts. Xiao will receive a $6,000 honorarium, a commemorative plaque and travel support to attend the ACS award ceremony March 24, 2026, in Atlanta.
“Receiving this honor is a tremendous milestone,” said Xiao, who is a professor of chemistry, bioengineering and biosciences, the director of Rice Synthesis X (SynthX) and a Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas Scholar. “It affirms our team’s efforts at the intersection of chemistry and biology to develop tools that enable precise, safe and effective treatment, driving the translation of discoveries into real-world therapies.”
Xiao’s research focuses on developing chemical tools to probe and manipulate biological systems. His work encompasses the design of new molecular building blocks, the enhancement of chemical-biological tools, the regulation of cellular pathways and therapeutic applications for cancer, and autoimmune and metabolic diseases. His lab emphasizes translational research, merging chemical biology, glycobiology and cancer immunology with the goal of advancing clinical innovations.
At the forefront of cancer therapy, Xiao combines synthetic chemistry, molecular biology and immunology to engineer more effective treatments. His research team has pioneered a bone-targeting antibody therapy for bone tumors and metastases, a paradigm-shifting advance that introduces the groundbreaking concept of bone-targeted biologics. Their studies demonstrated that these antibodies can inhibit both bone and secondary metastases.
Equally transformative is Xiao’s discovery of a novel glyco-immune checkpoint in the bone metastatic niche, revealing how blocking this checkpoint can reprogram the tumor microenvironment and enhance responses to immunotherapy. This groundbreaking work led to the establishment of OsteoLogic Therapeutics in 2022, a company focused on skeleton-targeted drug delivery. With support from Curie.Bio, Pillar VC and New York Ventures, OsteoLogic is advancing bone-targeted therapies for breast and prostate cancer metastasis.
In 2022, Xiao also founded SynthX, a pioneering center dedicated to developing next-generation cancer therapeutics and technologies by integrating advancements in organic chemistry, chemical biology and nanomaterial synthesis. SynthX has created strong partnerships with leading cancer programs across the Texas Medical Center, including Baylor College of Medicine’s Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Houston Methodist and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. This collaborative ecosystem fosters innovation and accelerates translational impact in cancer research.