Members

Renfeng Li, Ph.D. 

Associate Professor 

Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics

G.27A UPMC Hillman Cancer Center

5117 Centre Avenue

Pittsburgh, PA 15232

Phone: 412-623-2426

Email: renfeng.li@pitt.edu or REL115@pitt.edu

Education and Training

• B.E. in Analytical Chemistry, Beijing University of Chemical Technology,  Beijing, China, 2001

• Ph.D. in Biology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, 2008

• Postdoc Training in Virology at Dr. Diane Hayward's Lab, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 2014

My research during Ph.D. training began with a multi-faceted analysis of the specific interaction between an E3 ubiquitin ligase CHIP/STUB1 and its substrates Smad1 through the lens of biophysics and biochemistry. Starting from Postdoctoral training at Dr. Diane Hayward’s Lab at Johns Hopkins University (JHU), I have been working on Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) for more than eleven years. I also obtained an extensive training in quantitative proteomics at Dr. Akhilesh Pandey’s Lab at JHU (now at Mayo Clinic). I was recruited to Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in 2014 to establish an independent research lab with continuing focus on EBV pathogenesis. In Jan 2023, I moved to Univestiy of Pittsbrugh and UPMC Hillman Cancer Center. Over the past several years, my lab has been focusing on host factors in herpesvirus replication and the viral evasion mechanisms, which results in a series of publications in PLOS Pathogens and Cell Reports (See publications). 

Febri Gunawan Sugiokto, M.S. 

Ph.D. student

Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics

UPMC Hillman Cancer Center

5117 Centre Avenue

Pittsburgh, PA 15232

Email: FGS15@pitt.edu 

Education 

• B.S. in Biotechnology, Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia, Jakarta, Faculty of Biotechnology, Undergraduate Program, 2015 (GPA = 3.93 of 4.00)

• M.S. in Microbiology and Immunology, Tzu Chi University, Taiwan,  2020 (GPA = 4.00 of 4.00)

My undergraduate research was about variant calling from next-generation sequencing data of mitochondrion and apicoplast from Plasmodium vivax whole-genome data. All of my undergraduate research aspects were focused on the Bioinformatics field, including making simple script using #bash. During my master degree period from 2018-2020, I have challenged myself on wet-lab based research. I focused on characterizing bacteriophages and Acinetobacter baumannii that has been resisted by the phage infection. I have gained knowledge on bioinformatics, protein structure modeling, DNA manipulation, protein isolation, and characterization. 

Yuxin Liu, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow

UPMC Hillman Cancer Center

5117 Centre Avenue

Pittsburgh, PA 15232

Email: YUL604@pitt.edu

Education 

• Ph.D. in Microbiology, Shimane University, Japan, 2024.

I have unique training in virology, especially EBV reactivation and cell death, using tyrosine kinase inhibitor dasatinib to treat EBV-associated cancer, and mouse xenograft model for EBV-associated cancer. In the Li lab,  I am working on epigenetic regulation of EBV latency and reactivation. 

Ingrid Wang

Undergraduate Student

Education 

• Biological Science, University of Pittsburgh (2002-2026)