Experience

Shanghai institute of biological sciences

• China
• Research Services

• Professor, Principal Investigator

  • Sep 2010 - Present

  Adult stem cells need to integrate all the environment cues to determine whether to stay in quiescent stage or proliferate or differentiate. The signaling pathways must communicate well with the transcription machinery to help cell make the right decision at the right time. The molecular mechanism behind this communication between signaling pathways and transcription machinery is the focus of many studies. Muscle stem cell represents a good model system to explore this mechanism. Muscle stem cells have to communicate to the environment frequently to regenerate muscles upon stimuli such as exercise, muscle injury etc. This frequent convert between quiescence, proliferation, and differentiation in muscle stem cells give us a good opportunity to study the potential mechanism behind it. Forkhead transcription factor family plays an important role during this process. We will study the signaling pathways in muscle stem cells and roles of Forkhead family members in these cells using molecular biology, cell biology, mouse genentics, and super-resolution imaging techniques. The major research interests in my lab are: 1. Identify the muscle stem cell niche. 2. Identify critical molecules, such as transcription factors, non-coding RNAs, during muscle regeneration, and explore the mechanism governing their functions. 3. The relationship between stem cell metabolism and their maintenance and differentiation. 4. The effects of adipocytes on metabolism and differentiation potential of muscle progenitor cells, and the transdifferentiation between muscle progenitor cells and other cell types. 5. Look for the progenitor of muscle stem cells, and compare the mechanisms governing embryonic muscle generation and adult muscle regeneration.



University of California, Berkeley, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

• Senior Scientist

  • Apr 2008 - Oct 2010

• Postdoc Fellow

  • Apr 2004 - Apr 2008


University of California, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology
• Postdoc fellow

  • 2004 - 2008

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
• United States
• Research Services
• 700 & Above Employee
• Postdoc Fellow

  • Jan 2003 - Apr 2004