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. Ma XL, Cheng SM, Ding RF, Zhaozhao Zhao, Zou XD, Shouhong Guang, Wang QX, Chen Yu, Ting Ni, Li L*. (2022) ipaQTL-atlas: an atlas of intronic polyadenylation quantitative trait loci across human tissues. Nucleic Acids Research. (accepted). (*corresponding author)

2. 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. (*corresponding author)

3. 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. (*corresponding author)

4. 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. doi: 10.1038/s41588-021-00864-5. 

5. 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. (^co-first author)

6. Feng X^, Li L^, Wagner EJ, Li W. (2018) TC3A: The Cancer 3′ UTR Atlas. Nucleic Acids Research, 46(D1): 1027–1030. (^co-first author)

7. Li L, Huang D, Cheung MK, Nong W, Huang Q, Kwan HS. (2013) BSRD: a repository for bacterial small regulatory RNA. Nucleic Acids Research, 41(D1): 233-238.