Research Interests
Auto-immune diseases are often caused by mis-regulated innate immune responses. The recent discoveries of a collection of innate immune receptors and their downstream adaptors provided us with the unprecedented opportunities to investigate and tackle the related diseases. However, at the moment, the effort of developing related therapies is largely prohibited by a lack of knowledge of molecular information of the key components of the signaling pathways.

Based on my previous success and experience in characterizing MDA5 and RIG-I, two cellular viral RNA sensors in innate immunity, I propose to investigate their downstream adaptor protein, MAVS, and other related innate immune signaling pathways. I plan to employ a combination of biophysical, biochemical and cellular methodologies to achieve my research goals.

I encourage undergraduate and graduate students sending in enquiries about opportunities performing cutting-edge research in molecular immunology. There are also Project Officer positions available.