Current
CURRENT
Faculty and Research Mentors
Ping He
Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology
pinghemi@umich.edu
MCDB faculty link
China Agricultural University, China B.S. 1993
Chinese Academy of sciences, China M.S. 1998
Kansas State University Ph.D. 2003
Harvard Medical School, Boston Postdoc.2003-2008
Libo Shan
Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology
liboshan@umich.edu
MCDB faculty link
Beijing Normal University, China B.S. 1995
Chinese Academy of sciences, China M.S. 1998
Kansas State University Ph.D. 2003
Harvard Medical School, Boston Res. Fellow 2003-2008
Postdoctoral fellows:
Yan Yan
Email: umyyan@umich.edu
Yan Yan got his Ph.D in University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2016 and spent three years in UC-Davis as a postdoc working on the long-distance signaling transduction in plant. Then he joined our lab in Dec. 2019 as a post-doc research associate. Now, his primary research interest is to illustrate post-transcriptional regulations in plant immunity responses in Arabidopsis.
Incheol Yeo
Email: icyeo@umich.edu
Incheol is from South Korea and he received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Chung-Ang University in Korea. During his M.S. course, he studied the interspecies interaction of antibiotic-producing microorganisms with pathogens. He earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry at Texas A&M University where he studied with Dr. Timothy Devarenne working on phytohormone-regulated host plant defense against a bacterial pathogen. He joined the lab in June 2020 as a post-doc. He works on understanding mechanisms of activation for a resistance protein inducing cell death and proteomics of plant immunity proteins.
Sung-Il Kim
Email: sungil@umich.edu
Sung-Il Kim is from Dae-Gu in South Korea. He got a B.S at Kyung Hee university then got M.S and Ph.D at Seoul National University. He joined here in Sep 2021 to understand how plants control RNA alternative splicing in response to biotic stress.
Yingpeng Xie
Email: ypxie@umich.edu
Yingpeng is from Shandong, China. He got his PhD at City University of Hong Kong. During his PhD training, he studied how bacteria infect host plants and cause diseases. He joined the lab as a post-doc on Sep in 2021. His research interest is to illustrate the roles of phytocytokines in regulating plant Immunity.
Guangchao Liu
Email: gcliu@umich.edu
Guangchao received his Bachelor degree from Nanjing Agricultural University in 2016 and his Ph.D degree from Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology (IGDB) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 2022. During his doctoral training, he studied the effects of protein ubiquitination on plant abiotic stress responses. In August 2022, he joined the lab as a postdoctoral fellow to investigate the role of calcium signaling in pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) responses and RNA binding proteins in plant autoimmunity.
Yunqing Jian
Email: yqjian@umich.edu
Yunqing Jian is from Sichuan, China. She received her Ph.D at Zhejiang University in 2020, and had a two-year postdoc experience there. During her Ph.D training, she studied the mechanisms of how fungi combat with plant-derived stresses. She joined our lab in August, 2022 as a post-doc, and her research mainly focused on evolutionary perspective of RLKs and their ligands.
Yulu Zhou
Email: ylzmith@umich.edu
Yulu Zhou received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Northwest A&F University and his Ph.D. from Wuhan University. During his Ph.D., he studied research on how translational control mediates plant immunity. After completing his Ph.D., he joined our lab as a postdoc in 2023. Currently, he is focused on studying the mechanisms of plant autoimmunity.
Lingxiao Ji
Email: lingxji@umich.edu
Lingxiao Ji is from Shanxi, China. She received her Ph.D. from Huazhong Agricultural University in 2022. During her Ph.D., she focused on lipid signaling and calcium signaling under cold stress in rice. She joined our lab in May 2024, and her research mainly focuses on calcium signaling in plant autoimmunity.
Qiaochu Shen
Email: qcshen@umich.edu
Qiaochu is originally from Heilongjiang, China. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of Cologne and the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Germany, where she explored the role of plant MLKL proteins in plant immunity. Qiaochu joined the lab as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in July 2024, and she focused on the mechanisms of plant immune receptors NLR- and RLK-mediated signaling in modulating a balanced immune response.
Graduate Students:
Suji Ye
Email: sujiye@umich.edu
Suji joined the lab in Fall 2020 as a Ph.D student. She received a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Kyungpook National University in South Korea. During Master’s course, she studied metabolic engineering in food biotechnology. She works on understanding mechanism of plant cell death and signaling protein.
Rachel Rivero
Email: rrivero@umich.edu
Rachel is from Austin, TX and joined the lab in Spring 2021 as a PhD student. Her work is focused on exploring the bio-production potentials and elucidating the asexual reproduction process of Kalanchoe daigremontiana. She received a B.S. in Resource & Environmental Studies at Texas State University in 2017. Apart from her research, she enjoys spending time with her cat.
Staff:
Nesa Shamdasani
Undergraduates:
Kimi Liu (Tiancheng Liu)
Saarim lqbal