News

2021.09.2021 The commitee unanimously decided that Yu did a stellar job with his PhD defense and granted him a Doctor of Philosophy in Biology

We celebrated Yu's accomplishments and contributions to the lab at the medical center with some food. Congrats Yu!!

2021.08.26 Our second Nature communications paper was accepted this week. The preprint is available here: Coupled protein synthesis and ribosome-guided piRNA processing on mRNAs

Yu Sun will be presenting his PhD defence on Thursday September 2 2021.

Zoom: https://rochester.zoom.us/j/96390167077 Meeting ID: 963 9016 7077

2021.08.25 We have had had a lot of exciting things happening in the lab over the past 2 weeks

Khai Du, our highly productive technician, got accepted to URMC MD program. Congrats Khai!!

Qian Mu, our masters student got accepted to the PhD program of Biomedical Engineering at Lehigh University. Qian was studying mechanical engineering and had no background in biology, but managed to learn quickly. At the end of the training, she was able to produce publication quality data, which prepared for her further training.

Xianyi Liu, our undergrad student majoring in Data Science, got accepted to the masters program in Biostatistics at Columbia University. Xianyi is part of the first cohort of graduatesfrom our Data Science Institute. She was trained by Yu, and was quickly managed to process highthoughput data and generate beautiful figures. Her project was to understand translational control during spermatogenesis.

Karen Doersch, resident of our Urology program, got a travel award to present her work at the Basic Sciences Symposium at the AUA Annual Meeting in Las Vegas. Her project was to study mTor function during spermatogenesis. Inhibition of mTor leads to longevity in all tissues except testis. Karen is trying to figure out the underlying mechanisms using metabolomics approach.

Wei Le, our guest member and a practicing Urologist, graduated with his PhD degree. As a surgeon, Wei managed to find time during his clinical practice and pursue his passion in research. He has been a long time follower of our research, and has been a routine member of our group meetings since we started using a virtual platform. He always brought the clinical perspectives and asked great questions. With his participation, we hope to have more direct impact on human health.

2021.08.14 A brand new course: BCH 394 - Introduction to Lizard Research is online now! This course is designed to help undergraduate students design experiments using an unconventional model organism and can be a gateway to new and exciting discoveries.

2021.06.04 Hanwen Gu, an undergraduate student in our lab, has successfully published a paper in the journal of Poultry Science. This paper is our first publication in the journal and was co-corresponded by Yu Sun, our graduate student. Congratulations to you both!

2021.05.18 Dr. Li collected shark samples to study piRNAs

2021.05.13 Our sperm RNA manuscript has been highlighted in BOR https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33787842/

2021.05.11 Join us in congratulating Hannah, our undergraduate who has received the competitive Catherin Block Memorial Award and Karen our MD PhD Urology resident whose work on mTor pathway in testis has been selected for presentation at the 2021 Annual Meeting of the American Urological Association in Las Vegas. We wish them both the best.

2021.04.21 Congratulations to Zha Zha our undergraduate student who won the Discover Grant Award for his proposal to study the regeneration of lizards' tails and Amanda our former mouse technician who has been accepted to UR with a Dean's scholarship. We are incredibly proud of you both.

2021.04.08 We are excited to announce that Ruoqiao Wang and John Roy Lozada have been accepted to URMC and University of Minnesota respectively. Ruoqiao has been with the lab for the past 1.5 years as a visiting student from China and will be starting her PhD in the Fall and John has been our undergraduate editor for the past 2 years and he will be joining the University of Minnesota MD PhD program.

2021.03.23 Join us in congratulating Yifan who got committed to Ohio State for Class of 2025 with First Year Scholarship. We are very proud of him!

2021.01.22 Our sperm RNA paper has been accepted by Nature Communications.

2021.01.14 Lingfeng Luo has successfully defended his PhD thesis.

2020.12.13 High school intern student Hanzhou received college offer from University of Rochester.

2020.10.06 Karen won the second place in the Resident Essay Prize competition at the NSAUA meeting.

2020.09.23 Karen won the NSAUA 2020 resident prize essay contest.

2020.07.15 Dr. Li presented our recent work 'Coupled protein synthesis and ribosome-guided piRNA processing on mRNAs' on RNA Collaborative Seminar Series.

2020.06.05 Kadijah wins University of Rochester Elon Huntington Hooker Dissertation Fellowship for 2020-2021! This fellowship was first endowed by the Hooker family in 1947 to support graduate students across disciplines in the sciences. It is one of the University’s most competitive dissertation fellowships and is given to students who display exceptional ability and promise.

2020.05.22 Ebook titled "Sperm Differentiation and Spermatozoa Function: Mechanisms, Diagnostics, and Treatment" co-edited by Prof. Li with the Dr. Avidor-Reiss, and Dr. Zhang is published.

2020.05.18 Yifan, Goutham, Ruoqiao and Amanda are recognized to be URMC Heroes due to "“A strong passion and brave commitment for science” they demonstrated during Covid19 pandemics.

2020.05.08 Yifan Shen successfully defend his thesis “Defining Small RNA-Mediated Anti-Viral Mechanisms in Cats”.

2020.04.28 Dr. Li's speech for the 2020 Biochem undergrad graduation.

2020.03.16 Dr. Li's editorial article has been accepted in Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology.

2020.02.07 NCB published a featured news for our manuscript, written by Shu-Bing Qian from Cornell University. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41556-020-0464-5

2020.01.22 Welcom new postdoc Dr. Goutham Shanker.

2019.12.16 Our manuscript has been accepted by Nature Cell Biology.

2019.11.01 Li lab won the first place of biochemitry and biophysics department Halloween Door Contest. Great job!

2019.10.06 Welcome visiting student Ruoqiao Wang (Picture taken at Roux restaurant).

2019.09.25 Dr. Li has been promoted to Associate Professor. Congratulations!

2019.06.11 Welcome new technician Amanda Pereira (Picture taken at Texas de Brazil).

2019.05.22 Kadijah's master degree has been awarded. Congratulations!

2019.03.07 Kadijah Abston passed her qualifying exam. Great job!

2019.02.01 Welcom new postdoc Dr. Rajyalakshmi Meduri.

2018.12.10 Welcom new postdoc Dr. Kahina Ghanem.

2018.11.12 Yu received Department of Biology travel funds.

2018.10.22 Our lab received a Pilot Project funding from Environmental Health Sciences Center at University of Rochester.

2018.09.28 Lab picture

2018.08.15 Welcome! Graduate student Kadijah Abston joined the lab!

2018.07.19 Our lab received NIH MIRA R35 funding for our piRNA research, entitled 'Define piRNA biogenesis and function in mice'.

2018.07.13 Gayathri Guru Murthy successfully defended her undergrad thesis. Congratulations!

2018.05.03 Our research highlight paper has been published online.

2018.03.16 Two Araucana breed roosters arrived at the lab, one named temp (left), and the other named snowman (right).

2018.03.01 We received a new USDA grant to study chicken piRNAs.

2017.12.13 Our lab welcomes a new postdoc, Dr. Ziwei Li.

2017.05.23 Our research was highlighted in ALN Magazine news entitled 'Rooster Study Shows How the Body Wards Off Viruses'.

2017.04.26 Our research was highlighted in URMC news entitled 'Using rooster testes to learn how the body fights viruses'.

2017.03.04 Lab first paper 'Domestic chickens activate a piRNA defense against avian leukosis virus.' has been accepted by eLife.

2017.01.30 Li Xie won MFC Student/Trainee Travel Award.

2016.11.16 Li Xie passed his qualifying exam.

2016.10.18 Dr. Jiang Zhu joined the lab.

2016.10.04 Yu Sun passed his qualifying exam.