Ph.D., Professor, State Laboratory of Chemical Medical Biology, graduated from University of Science and Technology of China
NSFC Outstanding Young Scholars; National Key R&D Program of China - Youth Program Chief Scientist
Research Interest：The major research interest for LimsLab focuses on method development and innovative applications of conformer-resolved mass spectrometry, providing molecular basis and next-generation precise diagnosis and therapeutics for human neurodegenerative disease. Dr. Li’s recent research effort was put on the discovery of novel protein post-translational modifications (PTMs), specifically stereochemical modification (SCM), empowered by signal amplification-based, conformer-resolved mass spectrometry technique. Unlike traditional PTMs, SCM does not change the mass or charge of the substrate proteins and peptides. Instead, only a few portions of the carbon centers of amino acid backbones was reversed spatially, usually from L-configuration to D-configuration. This no-mass change type of PTM has been linked to neurodegenerative disease including Alzheimer’s disease over ten years. However, the exact molecular mechanism behind this linkage is definitely poor understood, primarily due to the lack of high-resolution and sensitive tools to dissect the SCM from the proteome ocean at large scale. This fact inspires the major research direction of LimsLab.
Education History：
2008.09-2012.06, Jiangxi Normal University, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, B.S.
2012.09-2017.06, University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), Analytical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, Ph.D.
2017.08-2021.01, University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Pharmacy, Postdoctoral Research Associate
2016.04-2016.08, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Department of Chemistry, Visiting Student
Honors and Awards:
Tianjin Association for Science and Technology "Advanced Society Worker" (2023);
Chief Scientist for the National Key R&D Program of China - Youth Program (2022);
NSFC Outstanding Young Scholars (2022);
Member of Tianjin Chromatography Research Association (2021);
ASMS Postdoctoral Career Development Award (2019);
Finalists for FACSS Innovation Award (2019).
Scientific Achievements & Selected Publications
To dissect the structure-activity relationship of low-abundance protein modifications associated with human neurodegenerative diseases, based upon the native ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IM-MS) platform, the Li Research Group has creatively built up a multi-scene analytical system of "high-performance conformer-resolved mass spectrometry", which was successfully applied to the tentative discovery of a new type of stereochemical modifications (SCM) of neurodegenerative disease biomarker proteins at the proteome level. The key technical advancement is centered on a signal amplification-equipped IM-MS (SAIMS) strategy, with increasingly upgrading versions in growing sensitivity, structural resolution and throughput. The analytical achievements in SAIMS and novel scientific findings of protein SCM will add important values to both the chemistry and chemical biology areas, enriching the toolboxes to improve the understanding of the molecular mechanism of the structural details for protein low-abundance modifications associated with human diseases and their dynamic changes, ultimately leading to the discovery of potential novel drug targets.
1. Zhen Zheng, Min Ma, Yifei Jia, Yusi Cui, Rui Zhao, Shuangshuang Li, Cody Wenthur*, Lingjun Li* and Gongyu Li*. Expedited Evaluation of Conformational Stability-Heterogeneity Associations for Crude Polyclonal Antibodies in Response to Conjugate Vaccines. Anal. Chem. 2023, 95, 29, 10895-10902.
2. Gongyu Li*, Chae Kyung Jeon, Min Ma, Yifei Jia, Zhen Zheng, Daniel G. Delafield, Gaoyuan Lu, Elena V. Romanova, Jonathan V. Sweedler, Brandon Ruotolo* and Lingjun Li*. Site-specific Chirality-conferred Structural Compaction Differentially Mediates the Cytotoxicity of Aβ42. Chem. Sci. 2023, 14, 5936-5944.
3. Xia Xu, Li Han, Zhen Zheng*, Rui Zhao, Lingjun Li, Xueguang Shao, Gongyu Li*. Composite Multidimensional Ion Mobility-Mass Spectrometry for Improved Differentiation of Stereochemical Modifications. Anal. Chem. 2023, 95, 2221-2228.
4. Gongyu Li, Fengfei Ma, Qinjingwen Cao, Zhen Zheng, Kellen DeLaney, Rui Liu, Lingjun Li. Nanosecond Photochemically Promoted Click Chemistry for Enhanced Neuropeptide Visualization and Rapid Protein Labeling. Nat. Commun. 2019, 10, 4697.
5. Gongyu Li, Kellen DeLaney, Lingjun Li. Molecular Basis for Chirality-regulated Aβ Self-Assembly and Receptor Recognition Revealed by Ion Mobility-Mass Spectrometry. Nat. Commun. 2019, 10, 5038.
