Principal Investigator
Ming Li
Principle Investigator
Dr. Li grew up in Jingdezhen, a beautiful city in China known as the “Porcelain Capital”. As the first member in his family to go to college, Dr. Li is very fortunate to have the opportunity of completing his B.S. from Fudan University (Shanghai, China) and Ph.D. from University of Massachusetts-Amherst (mentor: Dr. Danny Schnell). He then completed two rounds of postdoctoral training with Drs. Magdalena Bezanilla (Umass-Amherst) and Scott Emr (Cornell University) before becoming an independent investigator.
Dr. Li is fascinated by organelles inside the cell. As a graduate student, he studied the mechanisms of chloroplast biogenesis and discovered a “post-import” pathway for chloroplast inner membrane proteins insertion into the lipid bilayer. As a postdoc in Scott Emr’s lab, Dr. Li studied the lysosome using budding yeast as a model organism. His lab aims to dissect the molecular mechanisms for lysosomal membrane regulation and quality control in both yeast and mammalian cells.
In his spare time, Dr. Li enjoys reading books on world history, geography, and watching documentary films.
Postdocs
Xi Yang
Xi received his B.S. degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University (China) and Ph.D. degree from Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (mentor: Dr. Yuke He ). He then completed the first round postdoctoral training in his Ph.D. lab. As a graduate student, he studied the mechanisms of miRNA biogenesis in Arabidopsis. In his free time, he enjoys reading novels and watching sports matches on TV.
Graduate Students
Felichi Mae Arines
Weichao Zhang
Rotation Students
Varsha Venkatarangan
Undergraduate Work Study
Aditi Kappagandu
Undergraduate Work Study
Aditi is an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan. She will be graduating in the winter of 2019 with a major in biochemistry and minor in computer science. After receiving her bachelor’s degree, she hopes to continue her education in the health field by going to medical school and becoming a doctor.
Grace Chu-Yuan Chu
Grace is an undergraduate student majoring in Biology at the University of Michigan. She is a member of the Honors Program and will graduate in the winter of 2019. Grace joined Dr. Ming Li’s lab in 2016. In her free time, she enjoys traveling and playing badminton.
UROP Students
Yun-Yu Liu
Yun-Yu is a freshman in the College of LSA at the University of Michigan. She plans on majoring in Biopsychology, Cognition, and Neuroscience (BCN) and minoring in Medical Anthropology. She hopes to apply to medical school and pursue a career in the healthcare field in future.
Aaron Hamlin
Aaron was born and lived in Hastings, MI prior to attending the University of Michigan. He is a freshman this year, and is interested in studying Biochemistry and/or Molecular and Cellular biology. In his free time, he enjoys reading novels and playing board and card games with friends.
Past Members
Yan Zhu
Rotation Student
Yan received my B.S. degree in Biological Sciences from Fudan University, China. During undergraduate study, Yan participated in research on intracellular traffic, signal transduction, and epigenetics using the model organism Arabidopsis. He became a PhD pre-candidate of MCDB in 2016. With the interest in membrane traffic, Yan is now rotating in Dr. Ming Li’s lab. Outside the lab, He enjoys watching animation, playing basketball, and listening to music.