Education and Training:

2006 – 2013: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA, Ph.D., Biophysics

2002 – 2006: Purdue University, IN, USA, M.S., Physics

1999 – 2002: Peking University, Beijing, China, M.S., Physics

1995 – 1999: Beijing University of Science and Technology, Beijing, China, B.S., Applied Physics

Research interests:

Single-molecule approaches have tremendous potential for revealing new insights into biological problems that cannot be accessed through more traditional ensemble level biochemical approaches. One of the greatest advantages of single-molecule methods is the ability to directly access information about heterogeneous reactions and transient reaction intermediates. In my lab, I will leverage these tools to begin analyzing key biological questions related to the maintenance of genome integrity and biological regulation mechanisms related to long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs). As a longer term goal, I hope to begin building towards systems that will allow me to address both the physical nature of these crucial reactions, as well as understanding precisely how these reactions occur inside of living cells.

Academic experiences:

2016 – present: Assistant Professor, Center of Quantitative Biology & Peking-Tsinghua Center of Life Sciences, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing, China

2013 – 2016: Postdoc Research Scientist, Columbia University, NY, USA

Selected publications:

1. Lee, J.Y., Terakawa, T.*, Qi, Z.*, Steinfeld, J.B., Redding, S., Kwon, Y.H., Gains, W.A., Zhao, W.X., Sung, P., and Greene, E.C. (2015). Base triplet stepping during DNA strand exchange by the Rad51/RecA family of recombinases. Science 349 (6251), 977-981.

2. Qi, Z., Redding, S., Lee, J.Y., Gibb, B., Kwon, Y., Niu, H.Y., Gaines, W.A., Sung, P., and Greene, E.C. (2015). DNA Sequence Alignment by Microhomology Sampling during Homologous Recombination. Cell 160, 856-869.

3. Qi, Z., Pugh, R.A., Spies, M., and Chemla, Y.R. (2013). Sequence-dependent base pair stepping dynamics in XPD helicase unwinding. Elife 2.

4. Landry, M.P., McCall, P.M., Qi, Z., and Chemla, Y.R. (2009). Characterization of Photoactivated Singlet Oxygen Damage in Single-Molecule Optical Trap Experiments. Biophys. J. 97, 2128-2136.

Professional activities:

2015 – present: Member, the New York Academy of Sciences (USA)

2011 – present: Member, the Biophysics Society (USA)

Group Member: