Tracking cell activity is essential for understanding biological processes. An ultimate aspiration in biology is to map the dynamics of all cells of interest within an intact organ or organism in space and time, a goal yet to be achieved. In my career, I am committed to fulfilling this ambition through a new sensing modality … Continued
Metal-containing enzymes (metalloenzymes) hold tremendous promise for sustainable chemistry because they perform challenging reactions under mild conditions. However, known metalloenzymes are limited in substrate scope or have complicated structures that are recalcitrant to engineering, which poses a major constraint on biocatalyst development. Excitingly, microbial genomes harbor a wealth of unexplored enzymes that can serve as … Continued
The biophysical property of the nucleus dramatically impacts cell functions including migration, proliferation and pathogen killing by immune cells. Yet, we have limited understanding of how the nucleus controls cell behavior beyond gene expression – this prevents us from leveraging nucleus biophysics to engineer cells. My lab studies how cells regulate the biophysical properties of … Continued
Physical sensations, such as a stomach knot when experiencing anxiety or trembling in the face of fear, have long been associated with our emotions. However, discerning the relationship between emotions and bodily functions has proven difficult due to the challenges in independently controlling the brain or body. Here we propose to develop biohybrid technologies that … Continued
Spatial and functional organization of single cells in their tissue context is essential for a true mechanistic understanding of novel biology and disease pathogenesis, which is often missing in current single-cell omics data. In addition, the structure and function of three-dimensional multicellular tissues depend critically on the spatial and temporal coordination of molecular and physical … Continued
Carbon dioxide capture from the point of generation or the ambient environment is broadly recognized to play a key role in climate change mitigation. However, the incumbent methods are energy-intensive and fossil fuel-dependent. My research program aims to revolutionize the technological landscape for carbon capture by developing an entirely new mechanistic platform powered by renewable … Continued
As a Packard Fellow, I will explore the science and engineering of the fourth state of matter – plasmas – and the opportunities these exotic, chemically reactive environments may hold for converting stubborn molecules like CO2 into useful materials and products. Plasmas can be easily created and emerge once the electrons that hold molecules together … Continued
Biocatalysis holds the potential to revolutionize the sustainable production of biofuels, chemicals, and medicine. However, current biocatalysis research is limited to the engineering of enzyme functions known in biochemistry or organic chemistry. By combining our expertise in synthetic biology and synthetic chemistry, we are developing new strategies to discover and evolve novel modes of biocatalysis … Continued
The Li Group’s long term goal is to understand and develop new technologies (e.g. batteries) that will play a major role in renewable energy, sustainability, and global climate change, all of which represent grand challenges for the 21st century. To accomplish this, our research program pursues two main thrusts: (1) to develop state-of-the-art experimental tools … Continued
Living tissue exhibits exquisite morphologies and material properties that are difficult to match synthetically. For decades, applying extracellular cues to cell aggregates has yielded tremendous gains in engineering tissue, influencing cell behaviors in highly valuable but often uncontrollable ways. My lab seeks a radical departure from this methodology to build next-generation synthetic tissue. We aim … Continued