Yingfu Li

Yingfu Li was born and raised in Anhui, China. He received his B. Sc. in chemistry at Anhui University in 1983, and his M. Sc. in applied chemistry at Beijing Agriculture University in 1989, under the supervision of Changhai Zhou. He moved to Canada in 1992, and in 1997, he graduated with a Ph.D. in chemistry and biochemistry at Simon Fraser University under the supervision of Dipankar Sen. He then did his postdoctoral research with Ronald R. Breaker at Yale University. In 1999, he joined McMaster University, where he is currently a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences and the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. Outside of the office, he enjoys playing golf, rain or shine.

My research focuses on nucleic acids structure and function, in vitro evolution, catalytic DNA, catalytic RNA, DNA and RNA aptamers, riboswitches, non-coding RNA, bacterial toxins, enzymology, nucleic acids engineering, molecular diagnostics, biosensors, organic synthesis, high-throughput screening, nanoparticles, DNA nanotechnology and spectroscopy.