Zhipeng Lu, PhD
Assistant Professor, USC Department of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Member, USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center
Education and Training
2014-2018, Postdoc in Howard Chang lab, Stanford
2008-2014, PhD in Greg Matera lab, UNC Chapel Hill
2004-2008, BSc, Fudan University
Recent Awards
2019 USC Research Center for Liver Diseases Pilot Award
2019 Keck Genomics Partnership Award
2017 NHGRI K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award
2017 RNA Society Scaringe Award
2016 Stanford’s Jump Start Award for Excellence in Research
2015 Damon Runyon-Sohn Pediatric Cancer Fellowship Award

 

Kongpan Li, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow
Education and Training
2012-2019, PhD from China Agricultural University, Beijing, China
2008-2012, BS in Biotechnology, College of Science, Shantou University, China
Research Interests
My research interests are to find out important RNA structures and interactions between host cells and RNA viruses during the infectious cycle and study the molecular mechanisms underlying viral infection so as to help control infectious diseases.

 

Jianhui Bai, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow
Education and Training
2013-2019, PhD from China Agricultural University, Beijing, China
2009-2013, BS in Biological Sciences, Changzhi University, China
Research Interests
My research interest is focused on discovering RNA structures and interactions associated with viral infection using PARIS method to further understand their roles in human infectious diseases.

 

Ryan Van Damme, PhD student in Molecular Pharmacology and Toxicology
School of Pharmacy Charles and Charlotte Krown Fellowship (2022)
Education and Training
2012-2016, BS in Chemistry, University of California, Merced
2016-2019, researcher at Genentech and Diassess.
Research Interests
My research interests lie in developing new molecules and methods for increasing the efficiency in DNA/RNA crosslinking to better understand RNA complexes and RNA/protein complexes

 

Wilson Lee, PhD student in Pharmaceutical and Translational Sciences
Education and Training
2014-2018, BSc, California State University Los Angeles
Research Interests
My research is focused on understanding the roles and structures of cancer-associated RNAs. I am also interested in the development and optimization of chemical and computational methods for RNA structure analysis.

 

FORMER MEMBERS

Minjie Zhang, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow (2018-2023). 
Current position: Professor at Tianjin Medical University.

Jiacheng Ding, 2018-2020. Master student in Pharmaceutical Sciences
Current position: PhD student at the University of Arizona. 

Xinyi Wang, 2018-2020. Master student in Pharmaceutical Sciences
Current position: PhD student at the Ohio State University.

Yao Xiao, 2018-2020. Master student in Pharmaceutical Sciences
Current position: PhD student at the University of Cincinnati. 

Chengqing Yu, 2018-2020. Master student in Pharmaceutical Sciences
Current position: a research scientist in Beijing, China. 

Maia Corpuz, 2018-2020. PhD student in Molecular Pharmacology and Toxicology
Current position: PhD student at USC.