People

Principal Investigator

Yanqiang Li, Ph.D.

Professor & Principal Investigator
Department of Urology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University

Yanqiang leads the laboratory with a primary research focus on urologic oncology and epitranscriptomics. His work integrates Nanopore direct RNA sequencing (dRNA-seq) with AI-driven computational approaches to develop high-precision detection tools for RNA modifications, including 2'-O-methylation, m6A, and A-to-I editing. He investigates the functional consequences of dysregulated RNA modification pathways in prostate cancer and other urologic malignancies, and develops integrative multi-omics pipelines to study RNA stability and post-transcriptional gene regulation. The long-term goal of the laboratory is to translate mechanistic insights into clinical applications, including RNA modification-based biomarker discovery and precision therapeutic strategies.


Faculty

Hang Qin, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Hang is the first author of the DENA software (Genome Biology, 2022), a computational tool for m6A detection using nanopore dRNA-seq. His research focuses on developing advanced computational and deep learning methodologies for nanopore transcriptomic analysis, with particular expertise in decoding epitranscriptomic landscapes from long-read sequencing data. He collaborates on laboratory projects that integrate machine learning with RNA modification research in urologic cancers.


Research Assistants

  • Wenyue Huang

    Wenyue conducts multi-omics data analysis for the laboratory and collaborators in the Department of Urology. Her expertise includes RNA-seq, DNA-seq, and single-cell RNA-seq data processing, quality control, and downstream bioinformatic analysis. She provides analytical and technical support for the lab’s epitranscriptomic and cancer research programs.

  • Huanmin Jiao

    Huanmin specializes in nanopore RNA-seq, DNA-seq, and single-cell long-read RNA-seq analysis. She oversees data processing workflows, quality control, and downstream bioinformatic analyses for collaborative projects. Her work supports the lab’s core research in epitranscriptomics and urologic oncology.


Master Student (Visiting)

  • Qian Tian

    Qian is involved in environmental epitranscriptomics research and the development of deep learning-based computational tools for Nanopore direct RNA-seq analysis. Her work focuses on building AI models to improve the detection accuracy of low-abundance RNA modifications in cancer-related samples.


Undergraduate Students (Visiting / Intern)

  • Yaxuan Zhang

    Yaxuan conducts epitranscriptomic studies in cell models, investigating RNA modification profiles and their regulatory roles in cancer cell proliferation and migration.

  • Yang Dong

    Yang focuses on kidney cancer epitranscriptomics, analyzing RNA modification patterns in tumor samples and exploring their association with cancer progression.

  • Yajie Qi

    Yajie participates in single-cell long-read sequencing projects, processing and analyzing nanopore single-cell data to characterize cell-type-specific RNA modification landscapes in urologic tumors.

  • Zijie Ding

    Zijie contributes to single-cell long-read sequencing research, focusing on the integration of transcriptomic and epitranscriptomic datasets to identify novel cancer cell subpopulations and their RNA modification features. He recently completed a comprehensive review manuscript within three months.