We hope that in the future all diseases could be eliminated by programming cells with synthetic biological devicies, including artifical genes and gene circuits. To achieve this, one must know 1) the exact states of individual cells in a tissue before perturbing with synthetic devices, and 2) how each cell would respond to the perturbation. However, these two requirements are challenging to meet, as individual cells in a population are highly heterogeneous and synthetic biological devices often fail to operate robustly and predictably in every single cells.

To address these challenges, we are levearging systems-level approaches to deciphering why individual cells in the same tissue are so heterogeneous and what distinct functional roles each cell may play. We are also designing and optimizing synthetic genes and circuits that can operate robustly and predictably at the single-cell level. You may read more about what we are doing on the Research page and what we have achieved on the Publications page.

For perspective students or postdocs, we welcome students and postdocs from various academic backgrounds such as chemistry, biology, physics, math, bioinformatics, computer science, etc. We are also hiring technicians to work with us on wet or dry projects. If you are interested in what we are working on and would like to join us, please send an email to Dr. Lin (yihan.lin@pku.edu.cn). Click HERE for details on position openings.