Yi Liang, PhD Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Dr. Yi Liang earned his PhD in Molecular Medicine, with graduate specialization in cancer biology, at Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Centre in Guangzhou, China. His research focused on the origin of cancer stem cells and relevant targeted therapy. Prior to his PhD, Yi won the First Class Award for undergraduate students at Sun Yat-Sen University, where he pursued a Bachelor of Science in Biotechnology. Combining his previous experiences, Dr. Liang is currently pursuing his postdoctoral fellowship, focusing on epigenetic regulation in prostate cancer progression. His main project is to characterize the role of LSD1, an important epigenetic regulator, in epigenetic reprogramming in castration-resistant prostate cancer, determine the functional interaction between LSD1 and AR, and evaluate the antitumor effects of small molecular inhibitors against LSD1.
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Musa Ahmed, PhD Postdoctoral Research Fellow
After completing his PhD degree in Cell and Molecular Biology from Brock University, ON, Dr. Ahmed joined He lab in March, 2014. His PhD thesis focused on comparative analyses of whole genome sequences of individuals across all populations from the 1000 Genome Project to study evolutionary role of transposable elements. As a postdoctoral fellow in He lab, Dr. Ahmed is working on computational genetic and epigenetic analyses of role of long non-coding RNAs in Cancer. Furthermore, he is interested to explore the role of differentally expressed or activated repeat elements in cancer. Dr. Ahmed completed his MSc and BSc in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Outside the lab, his interests lie in aliens, paranormal activities, tech innovations, chess, ping pong and cricket.
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Haiyang Guo, PhD Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Dr. Haiyang Guo received his PhD in Genetics from Shandong University. During his PhD, he studied the transcriptional regulation of CXCR2 in cellular senescence as well as lncRNA transcriptome in uterine leiomyomas. Currently, he is working on lncRNA function in prostate cancer. His study is focusing on lncRNA expression modulation by SNP or somatic mutation and detection of lncRNA-protein interaction.
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Junjie (Tony) Hua M. Sc. candidate
Junjie has completed an Honours Bachelor of Science Degree at the University of Toronto with a focus on Cellular and Molecular Biology. He is currently a Master’s student in the Department of Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto. His research interest lies in the molecular mechanisms of epigenetic regulation. His current project focuses on the regulation and function of long noncoding RNA PCAT19 in prostate cancer. Junjie is also co-supervised by Dr. Ming Tsao to work on functional long noncoding RNAs in lung cancer.
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Yuzhe Zhang PhD candidate
Yuzhe Zhang is doing his PhD in epigenetics structural biology as a joint-education students, at the Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto. He is also appointed as a Lecturer in the Department of Biochemical and Molecular Biology, University of Dali. His research focused on the long non-coding RNA in Prostate Cancer, and explore the key protein and LncRNA. Prior to his PhD, Yuzhe acted as a research fellow at the Lab of Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing, P.R.China where he pursued a Master of Research(MRes) in Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics via LC/MS/MS, ICP-MS and other methods.
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Fraser Soares, PhD Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Fraser obtained his PhD. at the University of Toronto in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology. His PhD. work examined the role of cytosolic innate immune receptors (NOD-like receptors) in cell death and tumorigenesis. His current research aims to identify driver long non-coding RNAs(lncRNAs) in cancer malignancies, by performing genetic screens using the CRISPR/Cas9 genome-editing system. This project will provide a platform to rapidly identify functional lncRNAs in cancer, which may lead to the advancement of biomarker discovery and new therapeutic intervention. Fraser is also a part-time Lecturer at the local College where he teaches Biology & Chemistry related courses.
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Shiyan Wang, PhD Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Shiyan got her PhD degree at Medical Sciences at Department of Medicine, Chinese University of Hongkong in 2011. After that she worked as a lecturer in University of Science & Technology Beijing for about two years and then became a postdoctoral fellow at Research Laboratory of Institute of Digestive Disease, The Chinese University of Hongkong since 2014. She have been focusing on identifying novel tumor suppressor genes epigenetically down-regulated in gastrointestinal cancer progression and elucidating the function of these genes and its clinical significance. In 2016 she joined Prof. Hansen He’s lab, at the Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto. Her current goal is to elucidate the transcriptome disorder caused by m6A RNA modification in human cancers by m6A profiling analysis and identify novel oncogenes/tumor suppressor genes dysregulated by m6A RNA modification.
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Jennifer Lu Research Student
Jennifer is in her second year of BSc in the department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto. She is acting as a volunteer research student at the He Lab working in molecular charaterization and functional analysis of lncRNAs.
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