Biography
Yinqing Li moved to Tsinghua in 2018, where he is now an associate professor in the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and an principal investigator at the IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research at Tsinghua. He received his B.S. in microelectronics from Fudan University in 2008 and his S.M. and PhD in electrical engineering and computer science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2012 and 2016, where he worked with Dr. Feng Zhang and Dr. Aviv Regev. He then performed postdoctoral research with Dr. Guoping Feng and Dr. Zhanyan Fu in the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT and Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research. During the course of his doctoral and postdoctoral research, Yinqing pioneered several advances in engineering and characterization of cell and gene editing tools with TALE and CRISPR, co-invented single-nucleus transcriptome profiling technologies, and broadened these tools to systematically interrogate cortical-thalamic circuity function and in disease models.
He holds an affiliate position the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and visiting position in the Karolinska Institutet.
Yinqing has received prestigious fellowships and awards for his work, including MIT TR 35 under 35, China (2018), the Thousand Talents Plan for Young Professionals (2017), Extraordinary Potential Prize of 2016 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Students Abroad (2016), Wenner-Gren Fellowship (2016), and McGovern Institute Fellowship (2013).
People
Advisees and Students
Research
Yinqing Li has a longstanding interest in developing technologies for better diagnosis and management of complex diseases. In particular, his research focuses on methods for identifying key molecular and cell players in the development of diseases and methods for gene and cell editing. Specific approaches include: single cell multi-omics of epigenetics, transcriptome, and signaling pathway profiling, discovery of novel genome and epigenome editing tools, and statistical inference and machine learning algorithms for high throughput data mining and processing.
Publications
- Hu Y, Yang Y, Tan P, Zhang Y, Han M, Yu J, Zhang X, Jia Z, Wang D, Li Y, Ma T, Liu K, Ding S. Induction of mouse totipotent stem cells by a defined chemical cocktail. NATURE. 2022 Jun 21.
- Tan Y, Shen J, Si T, Ho CL, Li Y, Dai L. Engineered Live Biotherapeutics: Progress and Challenges. BIOTECHNOLOGY JOURNAL 2020 Oct;15(10):e2000155.
- Du J, Simmons S, Brunklaus A, Adiconis X, Hession CC, Fu Z, Li Y, Shema R, Møller RS, Barak B, Feng G, Meisler M, Sanders S, Lerche H, Campbell AJ, McCarroll S, Levin JZ, Lal D. Differential excitatory vs inhibitory SCN expression at single cell level regulates brain sodium channel function in neurodevelopmental disorders. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PAEDIATRIC NEUROLOGY 2020 Jan;24:129-133.
- Li Y, Lopez-Huerta VG, Adiconis X, Levandowski K, Choi S, Simmons SK, Arias-Garcia MA, Guo B, Yao AY, Blosser TR, Wimmer RD, Aida T, Atamian A, Naik T, Sun X, Bi D, Malhotra D, Hession CC, Shema R, Gomes M, Li T, Hwang E, Krol A, Kowalczyk M, Peça J, Pan G, Halassa MM, Levin JZ, Fu Z, Feng G. Distinct subnetworks of the thalamic reticular nucleus. NATURE. 2020 Jul;583(7818):819-824.
- Li Y, Weiss R., A Modular Approach to Building Complex Synthetic Circuits. Methods in Molecular Biology. 2017 pp. 231–248, DOI:10.1007/978-1-4939-7223-4_17.
- Yan WX, Mirzazadeh R, Garnerone S, Scott D, Schneider MW, Kallas T, Custodio J, Wernersson E, Li Y, Gao L, Federova Y, Zetsche B, Zhang F, Bienko M, Crosetto N., BLISS is a versatile and quantitative method for genome-wide profiling of DNA double-strand breaks. NATURE COMMUNICATIONS. 2017, 8:15058.
- Habib N*, Li Y*, Heidenreich M, Swiech L, Avraham-Davidi I, Trombetta JJ, Hession C, Zhang F, Regev A. Div-Seq: Single-nucleus RNA-Seq reveals dynamics of rare adult newborn neurons. SCIENCE. 2016, 353(6302):925-8.
- Yamano T, Nishimasu H, Zetsche B, Hirano H, Slaymaker IM, Li Y, Fedorova I, Nakane T, Makarova KS, Koonin EV, Ishitani R, Zhang F, Nureki O. Crystal Structure of Cpf1 in Complex with Guide RNA and Target DNA. CELL. 2016, 165(4):949-62.
- Nishimasu H, Cong L, Yan W, Ran F, Bernd Z, Li Y, Kurabayashi A, Ishitani R, Zhang F, Nureki O. Crystal structure of Staphylococcus aureus Cas9. CELL. 2015, 162(5):1113-26.
- Davidsohn N, Beal J, Kiani S, Adler A, Yaman F, Li Y, Xie Z, Weiss R. Accurate predictions of genetic circuit behavior from part characterization and modular composition. ACS SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY. 2015, 4(6):673-81.
- Li Y*, Jiang Y*, Chen H*, Liao W, Li Z, Weiss R, Xie Z. Modular construction of mammalian gene circuits using TALE transcriptional repressors. NATURE CHEMICAL BIOLOGY. 2015, 11(3):207-13.
- Swiech L, Heidenreich M, Banerjee A, Habib N, Li Y, Trombetta J, Sur M, Zhang F. In vivo interrogation of gene function in the mammalian brain using CRISPR-Cas9. NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY. 2015, 33(1):102-6.
- Duportet X, Wroblewska L, Guye P, Li Y, Eyquem J, Rieders J, Rimchala T, Batt G, Weiss R. A platform for rapid prototyping of synthetic gene networks in mammalian cells. NUCLEIC ACIDS RESEARCH. 2014, 42(21):13440-51.
- Busskamp V, Lewis NE, Guye P, Ng AH, Shipman SL, Byrne SM, Sanjana NE, Murn J, Li Y, Li S, Stadler M, Weiss R, Church GM. Rapid neurogenesis through transcriptional activation in human stem cells. MOLECULAR SYSTEMS BIOLOGY. 2014, 10:760.
- Kiani S, Beal J, Ebrahimkhani MR, Huh J, Hall RN, Xie Z, Li Y, Weiss R. CRISPR transcriptional repression devices and layered circuits in mammalian cells. NATURE METHODS. 2014, 11(7):723-6.
- Hsu PD, Scott DA, Weinstein JA, Ran FA, Konermann S, Agarwala V, Li Y, Fine EJ, Wu X, Shalem O, Cradick TJ, Marraffini LA, Bao G, Zhang F. DNA targeting specificity of RNA-guided Cas9 nucleases. NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY. 2013, 31(9):827-32.
- Guye P*, Li Y*, Wroblewska L, Duportet X, Weiss R. Rapid, modular and reliable construction of complex mammalian gene circuits. NUCLEIC ACIDS RESEARCH. 2013, 41(16):e156.
- Sakar MS, Neal D, Boudou T, Borochin MA, Li Y, Weiss R, Kamm RD, Chen CS, Asada HH. Formation and optogenetic control of engineered 3D skeletal muscle bioactuators. LAB ON A CHIP. 2012, 12(23):4976-85.
- Zhao P, Li Y, Zeng X, Zhou J, Huang Y, Liu R. EWOD using P(VDF-TrFE). IEEE Nano/Micro Engineered and Molecular Systems. 2009, 10.1109/NEMS.2009.5068559.
- Zhao P, Li Y, Zhou J, Huang Y, Xie H, Xu H. A novel EWOD digital microuidic device using P(VDF-TrFE). IEEE Solid-State and Integrated-Circuit Technology. 2008, 10.1109/ICSICT.2008.4735080.
Courses