Keqiong Ye

Biography

Education 1995 B.S. Biological Science and Technology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China 2000 Ph.D. Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China Professional Experience 2014-   Investigator, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences 2011-2014 Associate Investigator, National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing, China 2005-2011 Assistant Investigator, National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing, China 2001-2005 Postdoctoral research with Dr. Dinshaw J. Patel. Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, USA Education 1995 B.S. Biological Science and Technology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China 2000 Ph.D. Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China Professional Experience 2014-   Investigator, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences 2011-2014 Associate Investigator, National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing, China 2005-2011 Assistant Investigator, National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing, China 2001-2005 Postdoctoral research with Dr. Dinshaw J. Patel. Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, USA

Research Interest

The RNA molecule plays important roles in diverse biological processes, such as protein synthesis, RNA processing and modification, and gene regulation. Our laboratory is interested in structural studies related to RNA biology, focusing on eukaryotic ribosome assembly, RNA modification and RNA silencing. We use X-ray crystallography, electron microscopy, NMR, biochemistry and yeast genetics in our research. 1. Ribosome assembly in eukaryotes The ribosome, the factory of protein, is a large RNA-protein complex that is assembled through a highly complex processin cells. In the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, more than 200 conserved protein assembly factors and many non-coding RNAs are involved in ribosome assembly. We use the budding yeast as model organism and study the molecular events of ribosome assembly, the structure and function of assembly factors and the structure of  pre-ribosomes. 2. H/ACA and C/D RNA-protein complex The H/ACA and C/D RNA are two classes of ancient non-coding RNAs and mainly function as guide in multicomponent RNA-protein complexes during pseudouridylation and 2'-O-methylation of RNA. We study the structure, biochemical mechanism and biogenesis of the H/ACA and C/D RNA-protein complexes. 3. RNA silencing Several types of small RNAs (siRNA, miRNA, crRNA) serve as the specificity determinant in gene silencing in eukaryotes and prokaryotes. We study the processing and regulation of these small RNAs and their effector complexes.