Dr. Zefan Li - Ai Lab

Office Location: Pinn 4017

Email: zl2at at virginia.edu

My research interest is to use chemical biology, protein engineering, directed evolution, CRISPR screening, and fluorescence imaging to develop novel fluorescent protein-based biosensors for detection of various UDP-sugars dynamics and distributions in living cells, tissues, and animals. I hope those tools can be used to study glycan metabolism and its related regulatory pathways and diseases by utilizing the UDP-sugar sensors. I am also working on proximity labeling. Outside the lab, I like hiking and skating.

Current position:

Research Scientist 01/2023-present

School of Medicine, University of Virginia.

Previous Education and Professional Experiences:

Research Asscoiate 01/2019-12/2022

School of Medicine, University of Virginia.

Postdoc fellow 09/2017-11/2018

Department of Chemistry, Peking University, Beijing, China.

Ph.D. Chemical Biology 09/2011-07/2017

Department of Chemistry, Peking University, Beijing, China.

B.S. Chemistry 09/2007-07/2011

Nanchang University, Beijing, China.

Publications:

Jing Zhang, Zefan Li, Yu Pang, Yichong Fan, Hui-wang Ai*. Genetically Encoded Boronolectin as a Specific Red Fluorescent UDP-GlcNAc Biosensor. ACS Sensors 8, 2296-3003 (2023)

Zefan Li, Hui-wang Ai*. Illuminating lactate in cells, mice, and patient samples. Cell Metabolisms. 35 (1), 5 (2023)

Ying Xiong, Yiyu Zhang, Zefan Li, Md Shamim Reza, Xinyu Li, Xiaodong Tian, Huiwang Ai*. An Engineered Amber-Emitting Nano Luciferase and Its Use for Immunobioluminescence Imaging in Vivo. J. Am. Chem. Soc.144, 4101–14111 (2022)

Zefan Li, Jing Zhang, and Hui-wang Ai*. Genetically Encoded Green Fluorescent Biosensors for Monitoring UDP-GlcNAc in Live Cells. ACS Cent. Sci. 7, 10, 1763–1770 (2021)

Yaya Li, Weibing Liu, Qi Tang, Xinqi Fan, Yi Hao, Ling Gao, Zefan Li, Bo Cheng, Xing Chen*. Gap-Junction-Dependent Labeling of Nascent Proteins in Multicellular Networks. ACS Chem. Biol. 14, 2, 182-185 (2019)

Zefan Li, Yuntao Zhu, Yuting Sun, Ke Qin, Weibing Liu, Wen Zhou, Xing Chen*. Nitrilase-Activatable Noncanonical Amino Acid Precursors as a Versatile Tool for Cell-Selective Metabolic Labeling of Proteomes. ACS. Chem. Biol. 11, 3273-3277 (2016)

Ming Xiao, Liang Lin, Zefan Li, Jie Liu, Senlian Hong, Yaya Li, Meiling Zhen, Xuanming Duan, Xing Chen*. SERS Imaging of Cell-Surface Biomolecules Metabolically Labeled with Bioorthogonal Raman Reporters. Chem. Asian J. 9, 2040-2044 (2014)

See Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7c3DsrkAAAAJ&hl=en