Lab Members - YONG-XIN LI'S LAB

Jing Liu Postdoc

Jing Liu obtained her Master's degree in 2017 and Ph.D. degree in 2021 from Ocean University of China. Her previous research mainly focused on the discovery and biosynthesis of natural products from marine-derived Streptomyces. She joined this group in May 2021. She is interested in discovering the novel enzymatic mechanism in the molecular assembly process of natural products that have the potential to become drugs, and revealing their biosynthetic pathways and regulatory mechanisms.

Longcheng GUO Postdoc

Longcheng Guo earned his Master's degree in 2018 from Shandong University and completed his Ph.D. in 2024 at the University of Groningen under the supervision of Prof. Oscar Kuipers. previous research has primarily focused on discovering new natural nisin variants and designing, producing, and characterizing engineered lanthipeptides. In May 2024, he joined our group, bringing with him his passion for exploring and engineering novel RiPPs. We are thrilled to have Longcheng as a member of our team and look forward to the groundbreaking discoveries he will make in his future research. His Google Scholar profile: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=8Hm_h-sAAAAJ&hl=en

Ying Gao PhD Student

Ying Gao obtained her Bachelor's degree in Food Science and Engineering from Huazhong Agricultural University. She had been working on computational chemistry for two years before she joined this group in 2020. She wants to introduce deep learning into genome mining for the targeted discovery of natural products from ocean microbiome.

Zhiman Song PhD Student

Zhiman Song received her bachelors’ and masters’ degrees from Shenzhen University, during which she mainly focused on discovering novel bioactive natural products (NPs) from mangrove-associated microbes. She is interested in big data genome mining-guided discovery of NPs. She joined Li’s group in 2021 to discover novel antibiotics from marine microbes and investigate their biosynthesis.

Dengwei Zhang PhD Student

Dengwei received his Bachelor's degree, as well as Master's degree of biochemistry and molecular biology from University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC). After graduated, he has worked at BGI for 3 years, during which he mainly worked on establishing a genome editing platform for orchids as well as mining novel CRSIPR systems. He joined this group in July 2021, and maintained his interests in relating pathogenic molecular to human diseases by leveraging multi-omics approaches.

Zhuo Cheng PhD Student

Zhuo Cheng obtained her master's degree in Shanghai Jiao Tong University, during which she mainly focused on lanthipeptide biosynthesis. She joined this group in 2020 to work on the discovery and biosynthesis of novel Ribosomally and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs).

Yuqi Shi PhD Student

Yuqi Shi received her Master's degree from Lanzhou University. Her previous research mainly focused on the bioassay-guided discovery of natural products. She joined this group in September 2022 and wants to combine bioinformatics and biological evaluations to discover bioactive peptides from the human microbiome.

Xiaolin Zou PhD Student

Xiaolin ZOU earned her Master's degree from Wuhan University, where her research focused on discovering novel enzymatic mechanisms in the molecular assembly process of natural products with biological activity against bacteria or viruses. In 2023, she joined Li's group to study the relationship between human gut microbes and health.

Xiaoqian Lin PhD Student

Xiaoqian Lin obtained her bachelor's and master's degrees from South China University of Technology in 2020 and 2023, respectively. During her master's program, Xiaoqian conducted bioinformatic research at BGI Research, specializing in the functional mining of human intestinal microbial genomes and probiotics. In 2023, she joined Li's group to expand her research focus and delve deeper into exploring microbiome-derived functional peptides with therapeutic potential. We are thrilled to have Xiaoqian as a member of our team and look forward to the innovative contributions she will make to our research.

Cunlei Cai PhD student

Cunlei Cai obtained his Master's degree from University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2023. His previous work primarily focused on the discovery and biosynthesis of natural products from marine-derived fungi. In October 2023, Cunlei joined our group to expand his research focus and explore the discovery of novel natural products and enzymes from archaea. Cunlei's expertise and passion in this area make him an invaluable member of our team, and we are excited to see the innovative contributions he will make to our research.

Runze Liu PhD Student

Runze Liu earned his bachelor degree from Northwest A&F University in 2022. Driven by his passion for natural product discovery, he embarked on a research career and joined our group as an MPhil student in the same year. Transitioning to the PhD program in 2024, he continues to deepen his expertise in synthetic biology and natural product biosynthesis. Runze's focus lies in maximizing the enzymatic capabilities of biosynthetic enzymes for peptide exploration and bioengineering.

Xiuqi Jiang PhD student

Xiuqi received her dual Bachelor's degrees from Northwest A&F University (NWAFU) and University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), during which she mainly focused on bacteriocins from lactic acid bacteria. Her Master's degree was obtained from the National University of Singapore. She joined the group in September 2024 and is interested in secondary metabolites in the oral microbiome.

Xiaoxuan Chen PhD student

Xiaoxuan Chen obtained her Master's degree at the Southern University of Science and Technology, where she specialized in chemical and enzymatic reaction mechanisms using computational methods. She will join this group in September 2024 to explore the enzymatic mechanism involved in the RiPPs biosynthetic pathways and to discover novel peptides.

Zhuohan Li PhD student

ZhuoHan Li received his Bachelor's degree from South China University of Technology in 2024. During his undergraduate studies, ZhuoHan focused on the biosynthesis of terpenoid natural products in yeast chassis. In 2024, he joined our group as RA and then transfered to PhD study, with the goal of leveraging his expertise in synthetic biology and metabolic engineering strategies to improve the efficiency and yield of antibiotic biosynthesis. We are excited to have ZhuoHan as a member of our team and look forward to the innovative contributions he will make to our research.

Jiaqi Liu PhD Student

Jiaqi Liu earned his Bachelor's degree from Tianjin University in 2024, where he specialized in the heterologous expression of carotenoids. He commenced his MPhil studies with the group and transfered to PhD program in Dec. 2024. Jiaqi is passionate about chemical biology and biosynthesis, with a particular interest in exploring the biosynthesis and bioengineering of RiPPs (Ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides).

Nanzhu Chen Research Assistant

Nanzhu Chen obtained his Bachelor's degree in Biotechnology Engineering from South China University of Technology (SCUT) in 2019. After graduating, he worked as a Research Assistant at the Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology for one year, focusing on the surface display of enzymes on Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Nanzhu joined this group in October 2020, completed his graduate studies in 2023, and currently works as a Research Assistant within the group, specializing in synthetic biology and metabolic engineering of antibiotics.

Gengfan Wu MPhil Student

Gengfan Wu obtained his bachelor's degree from Sun Yat-Sen University, specializing in Computer-Aided Drug Design. In September 2022, he joined our group as an MPhil student, demonstrating a strong interest in protein design and bioengineering. Gengfan's primary focus centers on optimizing the enzymatic capacities of biosynthetic enzymes for peptide exploration and bioengineering.

Yiyang Yao MSc Student

Yiyang Yao earned her bachelor's degree in Bioengineering from Tianjin University of Science and Technology in 2022. After graduation, she accumulated two years of experience working at a biotech company, specializing in the bioengineering of active macromolecules. In 2024, she joined our group for her MSc capstone project, showcasing a strong passion for peptide discovery utilizing synthetic biology techniques.

Jinxiang Huang Undergraduate Student

Jinxiang Huang is a third-year student at the Faculty of Science, major in chemistry and minor in biochemistry. He is possionate at discovery of antiviral and anticancer drug.

Jing Liu ​Postdoc