(4bj) Postdoc Candidate: Mammalian Genome Engineering for Discovery of Novel DNA Regulatory Elements

I am currently a PhD candidate from Prof. Huimin Zhao's research group at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. My PhD thesis focuses on the discovery of novel DNA regulatory elements via genome engineering in mammalian cells. Specifically, I have developed a platform named SHIELD for fast and simple screening of potential anti-silencing DNA elements in human cells, which could help overcome transgene silencing in various applications. In addition, I was also involved in the 4D Nucleome project, for which I have been working on the dissection of large chromosome regions in order to identify DNA sequences that can target to specific nuclear compartments (i.e. DNA zip codes), and such discovery could shed light on the spatial genome organization in mammalian cells.

I have ~5-year research/engineering experience in mammalian cancer/stem cell lines using molecular and cellular biology tools, genome editing technologies (CRISPR, serine integrases, etc.), microscopic imaging analysis as well as DNA library construction. I am also good at team working and have worked on multiple collaborative projects in an interdisciplinary environment.

I would like to pursue postdoctoral training with my research interests listed above. In particular, I am interested in modulating human immune response to external stimuli (e.g. inflammation, pathogen infection, etc) via synthetic biology approaches in order to develop novel disease diagnostic and treatment strategies. I am also interested in developing novel epigenome editing tools for therapeutic purposes.