Jun-Ping Xu earned his Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences and medicinal chemistry at the Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Sciences in Japan. Before he worked at ASU, he had worked at the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai Institute of Pharmaceutical Industry.
HIs primary interests are in bioorganic chemistry and medicinal chemistry. Most effort is directed toward the discovery and development of new drug leads from natural sources and study of biologically important compounds for cancer suppression and other human diseases.