Research Areas

The computational biology and disease genomics lab is mainly focused on development and application of bioinformatics algorithms to elucidate genetic and epigenetic regulatory mechanisms in human complex traits and diseases from high-throughput sequencing data, with the goal of better detecting therapeutically relevant biomarkers.

Highlights

Dr. LI built the first comprehensive atlas of 3’UTR alternative polyadenylation quantitative trait loci (3’aQTL) and established the genetic link with human diseases, in addition I also designed a new computational approach from existing cancer “big data” and revealed the first evidence of a cancer-specific ubiquitin ligase driving APA, leading to 3’UTR shortening in many tumor types.

Honors

• • 2012 Travel Funds from CUHK, Hong Kong

• • Postgraduate Studentships from CUHK, Hong Kong

• • Invited Speaker, American Society of Human Genetics 2019 Annual Conference

• • Reviewer’s Choice Abstract Award, American Society of Human Genetics 2020 Annual Conference

Related News

Molecular Cell | 李磊博士等揭示肿瘤选择性多聚腺苷酸化的新机制 

（https://wemp.app/posts/4ddb2eb7-54f3-47c3-bd36-1051bbc0fa47, BioArt）

Selected Publications

1. Lin P^, Chen WY^, Long ZL, Yu JC, Yang JY, Xia Z, Wu QL, Min XY, Tang J, Cui Y,Liu FY, Wang C, Zheng J, Li W, Rich J N*, Li L*, Xie Q*. (2024) In vitro and in vivo CRISPR screens identify the ubiquitin E3 ligase RBBP6 as a targetable dependency of glioblastoma stem cells. Cell Discovery. 10, 32.

2. Chen H^, Wang ZY^, Gong LH, Wang QX, Chen WY, Wang J, Ma XL, Ding RF, Li X, Zou XD, Plass M, Lian C, Ni T, Wei GH, Li W*, Deng L*, Li L*. (2024) A distinct class of pan-cancer susceptibility genes revealed by alternative polyadenylation transcriptome-wide association study. Nature Communications. 15, 1729. 

3. Li L*, Ma XL, Cui Y, Rotival M, Chen WY, Zou XD, Ding RF, Qin YM, Wang QX, Quintana-Murci L, Li W*. (2023) Immune-response 3′UTR alternative polyadenylation quantitative trait loci contribute to variation in human complex traits and diseases. Nature Communications. 14, 8347.

4. Ding RF^, Wang QX^, Gong LH^, Zhang T, Zou XD, Xiong KW, Liao Q, Plass M, Li L*. (2023) scQTLbase: an integrated human single-cell eQTL database. Nucleic Acids Research. gkad781. 

5. Ding RF^, Zou XD^, Qin YM, Gong LH, Chen H, Ma XL, Guang SH, Chen Yu, Gao Wang*, Li L*. (2023) xQTLbiolinks: a comprehensive and scalable tool for integrative analysis of molecular QTLs. Briefings in Bioinformatics. bbad440.

5. Ma XL^, Cheng SM^, Ding RF, Zhao ZZ, Zou XD, Guang SH, Wang QX, Jing H, Chen Yu, Ting Ni, Li L*. (2022) ipaQTL-atlas: an atlas of intronic polyadenylation quantitative trait loci across human tissues. Nucleic Acids Research. 51(D1), D1046-D1052.

6. Zou XD^, Ding RF^, Chen WY, Wang G, Cheng SM, Wang Q, Li W*, Li L*. (2022) Using population-scale transcriptomic and genomic data to map 3′UTR alternative polyadenylation quantitative trait loci. STAR Protocols. 3(3), 101566.

8. Cui Y, Peng FL, Wang D, Li YM, Li JS, Li L*, Li W*. (2022) 3′aQTL-atlas: an atlas of 3′UTR alternative polyadenylation quantitative trait loci across human normal tissues. Nucleic Acids Research. 50(D1), D39-D45.

9. Li L, Huang K, Gao YP, Cui Y, Wang G, Nathan D, Li YM, Chen YE, Ji P, Peng F, William K, Wagner EJ, Li W. (2021) An atlas of alternative polyadenylation quantitative trait loci contributing to complex trait and disease heritability. Nature Genetics. 53: 994–1005.

10. Yang SW^, Li L^, Connelly JP, Porter SN, Kodali K, Gan HY, Park JM, Tacer KF, Tillman H, Peng JM, Shondra MP, Li W, Potts PR. (2020) A Cancer-Specific Ubiquitin Ligase Drives mRNA Alternative Polyadenylation by Ubiquitinating the mRNA 3′End Processing Complex. Molecular Cell. 77(6): 1206-1221.