Principal Investigator：Ming Li, Ph.D., Professor Telephone/Fax：+86-010-64807064 E-mail：lim_im@im.ac.cn Add.:Room H710,NO.1 West Beichen Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, China

Research interests Our lab works on the diverse microbial defense systems, including CRISPR-Cas, prokaryotic Argonaute (pAgo), toxin-antitoxin (TA), etc., and their application in biotechnology. 1. Characterizing novel defense mechanisms and exploring the physical and functional coupling between various defense pathways, which is critical for our comprehensive understanding of microbial defense lines. 2. Exploring the defensive proteins or non-coding RNAs to develop new biotechnological tools. 3. Exploiting the defensive apparatus (like CRISPR-Cas and TA) to improve the genome editing pipelines of non-model microorganisms of industrial, environmental, or clinical importance.

Education 2008-2014, PhD, Genetics, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. 2004-2008, Bachelor of Science, Shandong University, Jinan, China.

Research experiences   2020-Present Principle Investigator, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China 2017-2020 Associate Professor, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China 2016-2017 Assistant professor, Institute for Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China 2014-2016 Postdoc, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

Awards  and Honors 2020  The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) “Excellent Young Investigator

Selected publications   [1] Li M*#, Gong L#, Cheng F#, Yu H, Zhao D, Wang R, Wang T, Zhang S, Zhou J, Shmakov S, Koonin E, Xiang H*. (2021) Toxin-antitoxin RNA pairs safeguard CRISPR-Cas systems. Science. 372(6541): eabe5601. [2] Xu Z#, Li M#, Li Y, Cao H, Miao L, Xu Z, Higuchi Y, Yamasaki S, Nishino K, Woo PCY, Xiang H*, Yan A*. (2019) Native CRISPR-Cas-Mediated Genome Editing Enables Dissecting and Sensitizing Clinical Multidrug-Resistant P. aeruginosa. Cell Reports. 29(6):1707-1717. [3] Gong L, Li M*, Cheng F, Zhao D, Chen Y, Xiang H*. (2019) Primed adaptation tolerates extensive structural and size variations of the CRISPR RNA guide in Haloarcula hispanica. Nucleic Acids Res., 47(11):5880-91. [4] Li M#, Gong L#, Zhao D, Zhou J, and Xiang H*. (2017) The spacer size of I-B CRISPR is modulated by the terminal sequence of the protospacer. Nucleic Acids Res., 45(8):4642-54. [5] Cheng F, Gong L, Zhao D, Yang H, Zhou J, Li M*, Xiang H*. (2017) Harnessing the native type I-B CRISPR-Cas for genome editing in a polyploid archaeon. J. Genet. Genomics., 44(11):541-548. [6] Wang R#, Li M#, Gong L, Hu S, Xiang H*. (2016) DNA motifs determining the accuracy of repeat duplication during CRISPR adaptation in Haloarcula hispanica. Nucleic Acids Res., 44(9):4266-77. [7] Li M#, Wang R#, Zhao D, Xiang H*. (2014) Adaptation of the Haloarcula hispanica CRISPR-Cas system to a purified virus strictly requires a priming process. Nucleic Acids Res., 42(4):2483-92. [8] Li M, Wang R, Xiang H*. (2014) Haloarcula hispanica CRISPR authenticates PAM of a target sequence to prime discriminative adaptation. Nucleic Acids Res., 42(11):7226-35. [9] Li M, Liu H, Han J, Liu J, Wang R, Zhao D, Zhou J, Xiang H*. (2013) Characterization of CRISPR RNA biogenesis and Cas6-cleavage mediated inhibition of a provirus in the haloarchaeon Haloferax mediterranei. J Bacteriol., 195(4):867-75.