Dr Yiliang Ding

Group Leader Building Robustness in Crops (BRiC)

Yiliang’s research is on nucleic acid chemistry and RNA biology and bioinformatics.

Her research investigates the role of RNA structure in gene regulation, such as translation, spicing and degradation.

Yiliang focuses on understanding the dynamics of RNA structure in living cells both at the genome-wide scale and for individually targeted functional RNAs. To do this she develops new experimental and analytical approaches for revealing RNA structure and RNA-protein interactions.

Post-transcriptional regulation of genes has gained much attention in recent years because of its direct and rapid regulation of protein levels.

Their previous research has developed two novel and powerful platforms to study RNA structure in vivo and across diverse species at both the genome-wide scale (Ding et al., 2014 Nature) and in individual RNAs (Kwok et al., 2013 Nature Communications). These breakthroughs have removed technological barriers and opened up new avenues for RNA biology research.

The lab uses multidisciplinary knowledge and approaches in areas of Nucleic Acid Chemistry, RNA Biology and Bioinformatics.

Their research focuses on:

1. Determining the role of RNA structure in the post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression including translation, polyadenylation, RNA splicing, RNA stability and RNA processing

2. Exploring how RNA structures alter in response to environmental changes

3. Developing new experimental and analytical approaches for revealing RNA structure and RNA-protein interactions

Selected Publications

See all of Dr Yiliang Ding's publications

Opportunities

The Ding lab is seeking enthusiastic and highly motivated people with interests in studying these new avenues.

Enquiries to join the group from interested postgraduate and postdoctoral scientists are always welcomed.