Welcome to the Li Lab web page. We’re happy you have found your way here!
The Li Lab, run by Dr. Yingfu Li, is a dynamic and motivated research group consisting of research technicians, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, visiting scientists, and undergraduate students. If you’re interested in finding out who is a member of the Li Lab, head over to People.
Our group is mostly focused on innovating the DNA field through DNA-based enzymes (DNAzymes) and receptors (DNA aptamers), and their implementation in diverse applications (think therapeutics and diagnostics, with an emphasis on point-of-care).
We have had the privilege to receive research funding from multiple public and private sources. Currently, we are supported by grants from NSERC (the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) and CIHR (the Canadian Institute of Health Research). Grants by these and more allow us to conduct basic and applied research on topics of DNAzymes and DNA aptamers, expanding the field more and more.
We have also been collaborating with several Canadian biotech companies to develop point-of-care diagnostic assays and therapeutics. Together with one of these companies, Zentek Inc., we have made significant headway into moving aptamers from the bench to the patient.
Personnel Updates
We have had several people leave our lab within the last few years, but we’ve also had the pleasure to welcome new faces across all levels within the lab.
Zijie Zhang and Jinxing Li returned to China where they secured faculty positions. Guichi Zhu returned to Montreal.
We welcomed postdoctoral fellows Qing Wang, Rahul Chaudhari, Ahmed Abdel Hady, Lijuan Qi, Qingshi Liu and Younus Ali.
Shuwen Qian, Ioana Cozma and Rudi Liu successfully defended their PhD theses last year. Most recently, Sandy Zakaria successfully defended her PhD thesis.
Cheryl Tong, Jimmy Ma, Tian Le Long and Ace Le started their graduate studies.
We have had to say goodbye to some wonderful visiting scientists who have truly left their imprint on the group, Huimin Wang, Jiaxuan Xiao, Xiojuan Gong, and Dinghui Xiong. They became an integral part of the Li Lab, and we hope they enjoyed their time with us.
We welcomed Yunyan Ren and Ting Jiao, graduate students visiting from China.
Jake Brill, Ryan Amini, Kristie Chow, and Hunter Randall all successfully defended their MSc thesis, completing their MSc degree. Jake was accepted to Medical School, and we look forward to see where everyone else’s paths lead.
We said goodbye to some undergraduate students – Andrew Yu, Sara Fortier, Stephanie Abrokwa, Yash Patel, Alex Brown, Alex Mansfield, Megan Laing, Kaush Ahilan, Alyss McPherson, Joanna Wang, and Tegvir Grewal. Some of these bright minds continued to graduate school, while others found their way to Medical School.
We also got to welcome many undergraduate students! Valerie Han, Ginny Fung, Anthony Carlucci, Adam Monfaredi, Maxwell McConnell, Stephanie Ho, Ruijun Gao, Kathy He, Subah Rahman, and Aows Mansour.
All these people are essential to the research within the lab, but also key in generating the wonderful lab environment that we have fostered over the years.
Personal achievements
Jimmy Ma has received an award for one of the best presenters in the Biochemistry Graduate Student Seminar presentations.
Amal Mathai’s most recent paper has been recognized by the editor and reviewers at Angewandte Chemie as a high impact contribution to the field of DNAzymes, RCA, and diagnostics.
WildTech, a company which was created by one of the Li Lab members, has experienced several successes and we’re very excited to see how their path progresses from here.
I am thankful for the opportunity to mentor such a large and diverse team, and cannot wait to see where everyone’s paths lead.
Thank you for visiting our website. Happy browsing!
Yingfu Li
Professor of Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
McMaster University