May-10, 2021
Arinze has received Burroughs-Wellcome Graduate Fellowship to support his study in our lab. Congrats and well deserved, Arinze!
April-29, 2021
Arinze Okafor joined us as the FIRST PHD STUDENT OF DIAO LAB!!! He was admitted into Duke via the BME PhD program. Arinze is interested in stem cell biology, computational genomics, and machine learning. Welcome Arinze!
March-3rd, 2021
We are excited to introduce CRISPR-SE, a brute force search engine for robust and computational efficient CRISPR search design. Check out our paper here and visit our CRISPR-SE website for your CRISPR gRNA design if you are concerned the potential sgRNA off-target effect.
Dec-19, 2020
HiCAR pre-print is online at bioRxiv! Check it out: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.02.366062v2
HiCAR is a multi-omics co-assay that requires 50-100k cells, and enables simultaneous assessment of cis-regulatory chromatin interactions and chromatin accessibility, as well as evaluation of the transcriptome, which represents the functional output of chromatin structure and accessibility. Great job Xiaolin and Yu who lead the effort of this work!
Dec-1, 2020
Dr. Derek Peters joined our lab as a postdoctoral fellow. Derek received his MD-PhD training from Harvard-MIT and did two-year surgical residency at Duke. Derek did his PhD with Drs. Chad Cowan and Kiran Musunuru, and his graduate reserach focused on the applicaiton of genome editing and human pluripotent stem cells to characterize genetic factors underlying dieases predisposition, including non-coding DNA variants. In the Diao lab, he is insterested in understanding how and why muscle regeneration failure contribute to tissue loss pheontyoe in the critical limb ischemia patients and animal models.
Nov-2, 2020
Our collaborated work with Dr. Greg Wang at UNC Chapel Hill entitled "BAHCC1 binds H3K27me3 via a conserved BAH module to mediate gene silencing and oncogenesis" is online in Nature Genetics. More details: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-020-00729-3
Sep-18, 2020
The Diao lab has become part of 4DN consortium (phase 2). We look forward to working with the world leaders of 3D genome and gene regulation to study chromatin structure and function dynamics in skeletal muscle damage and repair.
Sep-1, 2020
Yarui receive the 2020 NIH/NHGRI Genomic Innovator Awards. With this $2.38M research funding in five years, we will analyze the molecular composition associated with non-coding DNA and RNA sequences, and determine their regulatory role in development and human diseases. Click here for NIH announcement. https://www.genome.gov/news/news-release/NHGRI-announces-2020-genomic-innovator-awards
Aug-31, 2020
Sam Reisman and Zac Farino, both 1st year CMB students, started their fall rotation with us. Welcome Sam and Zac!
July-15, 2020
Yarui receive grant from Fusion Oncoproteins in Childhood Cancers (FusOnC2) Consortium, which is associated with the Beau Biden Cancer MoonshotSM Initiative , to study gene regulation of PAX3-FOXO1 fusion protein in Rhabdomyosarcoma.
May-20, 2020
We received research funding from Elsa U. Pardee foundation (https://pardeefoundation.org/) to support the project to study a novel kinase and its targeted inhibitor in Rhabdomyosarcoma. Elsa U. Pardee Foundation grants are devoted to cancer research with about $110.5 million given to over 300 different institutions across the United States since 1944. Thank you Pardee Foundation!
May-15, 2020
Diao lab is re-open after two-month lab shut down since March-18, 2020! Let's stay safe, healthy, productive, and happy in the era of COVID19!
Feb-12, 2020
We have officially become part of Duke Center for Genomic and Computational Biology (GCB). Look forward to collaborating with and contributing to the GCB community!
Jan-22, 2020
Our collaborative work Dr. Ben Alman's lab is published on Nature Cell Biology. In this study, Yu provides his expertise on single-cell RNA-seq analysis to study how erythromyeloid progenitors give rise to a population of osteoclasts that contribute to bone homeostasis and repair. Check it out this cool paper!
Nov-25, 2019
Apoorva Lyengar from UPGG program and the CMB student Oliver Chung joined the lab for winter rotation. Apoorva will be working on developing MPRA assays and Oliver will study gene expression of FAP in skeletal muscle regeneration. Welcome Apoorva and Oliver!
Oct-07, 2019
Yarui is awarded the 2019 V Scholar Grant on behalf of Duke Cancer Institute. The V Scholar Grant supports young tenure-track faculty early in their cancer research careers by funding promising basic research or translational projects. Thanks V foundation!!! Victory over cancer!!!
Sep-09, 2019
Our paper about the long-range chromatin interactions among 18,943 gene promoters, 70,329 enhancers, and 27,325 noncoding sequence variants associated with 2,117 human diseases and traits in 27 human cell and tissue types is published in Nature Genetics. Check it out!
Sep-02, 2019
Sandy Srinivasan from UPGG program started her rotation project in our lab. Sandy will be working on an exciting project to develop MPRA and Mosaic-seq to study the regulatory role of GWAS SNP on gene expression.
Aug-19, 2019
Our collaborated work with Dr. David Kirsch's lab is accepted by PNAS. In this study, we performed single-cell RNA-seq analysis to study the role of neutrophils in tumor resistance in response to radiation therapy. Check it out!
Aug-12, 2019
Our single-cell RNA-seq and single-nuclei ATAC-seq data about muscle regeneration are freshly off the server! Tons of exciting data!!!
Aug-8, 2019
We received the grant from Kahn Program and Translating Duke Health (TDH) to support our effort to establish innovative functional genomics tools to study the role and mechanism of non-coding genetic risk variants in human diseases.
Aug-5, 2019
Yarui gave an oral presentation at the 2019 Gordon Research Conference: Genome Architecture in Cell Fate and Disease. Thanks the organizers of the Gordon Research Conference for the opportunity to share our research!
July-30, 2019
Yu has received a two-year postdoc fellowship from Regeneration Next Initiative to support his study on gene regulation in muscle regeneration. Congratulations Yu and Thank you RNI!
July-12, 2019
Yarui has received the 2019 Glenn Foundation for Medical Research and AFAR Grants for Junior Faculty (Formerly called the AFAR Research Grants for Junior Faculty) for our project to study gene regulation in muscle stem cell aging. Thanks Glenn Foundation and AFAR for the support!
June-25, 2019
Our collaborated work with the Soderling lab is published in Neuron! Check it out!
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31272828
May-13, 2019
Yarui is selected as one of the the Whitehead Scholars for the "exceptional potential for research and research training in the biomedical sciences" at Duke. Thanks Whitehead Charitable Foundation for supporting our research program!
March-1, 2019
The Diao lab has succefully recruited our 3rd and 4th postdoc fellow, Dr. Tongyu Sun and Dr. Xin Lin. Tongyu received his PhD training at Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences with Dr. Jun Qin to study epigenetic regulation and tumorigenesis. Xin received his graduate training on Veterinary Medicine at Zhejiang University, China with Dr. Caiqiao Zhang. Xin studied how aging affects chicken postovulatory follicle (POF). In the Diao lab, Tongyu will be developing CRISPR-BioID based approach to study the transcriptional and epigenetic control of non-coding regulatory DNA and RNAs in stem cell and cancer cells. As a mouse expert, Xin will be using mouse model to study gene reguation of muscle stem cell in response to injury in heathy and oncogenic environment. Welcome Tongyu and Xin!
Feb-26, 2019
After internal selection, Yarui is nominated by Duke Cancer Institute to represent Duke for the national competition of the V scholar pediatric cancer research award.
Dec-4, 2018
The Diao lab become part of Duke Cancer Institute. We are going to employ cutting-edge functional genomics tools and single-cell approaches to study transcriptional regulation in rhabdomyosarcoma and glioblastoma.
Dec-1, 2018
Dr. Xiaolin Wei joined our lab as a postdoc fellow. Xiaolin received his PhD training in Peking University/Tsinghua University/NIBS(PTN) joint program (the best biomedical graduate training program in China) in Dr. Xiao Liu's laboratory. As the first PhD student in Dr. Liu's lab, he spearheaded the effort to develop novel genome assembly method by designing barcoded BAC libraries. He also studied 3D chromatin structure between sister nematode species C. briggsae and C. nigoni. In the Diao lab, Xiaolin will lead the effort to develp cutting-edge multi-omics and single-cell genomics tools to study gene regualtion in stem cell. Welcome Xiaolin!
Oct-30, 2018
Today we did the very first experiment in the Diao lab - we transformed the Tn5 expressing plasmid into E. coli. to express and purify the magic enzyme for our single-cell ATAC-seq assays!
Oct-2, 2018
Dr. Yu Xiang joined our lab after a 19-hour behind-the-wheel driving from Texas. Welcome, Yu!
Sep-30, 2018
Yarui join the Duke University Program in Cell and Molecular Biology (CMB)! Thanks to CMB committee!
Sep-04, 2018
Diao lab is open on the third floor of Nanaline Duke Building!
Links to welcome to new faculty member from Cell biology (https://www.cellbio.duke.edu), Regeneration Next (https://sites.duke.edu/regenerationnext/2018/08/22/new-faculty-yarui-diao-sheds-light-on-dna-non-coding-dark-matter/), and Orthopaedic Surgery (https://ortho.duke.edu/latest-news/welcome-new-faculty-member-yarui-diao-phd)
Arinze has received Burroughs-Wellcome Graduate Fellowship to support his study in our lab. Congrats and well deserved, Arinze!
April-29, 2021
Arinze Okafor joined us as the FIRST PHD STUDENT OF DIAO LAB!!! He was admitted into Duke via the BME PhD program. Arinze is interested in stem cell biology, computational genomics, and machine learning. Welcome Arinze!
March-3rd, 2021
We are excited to introduce CRISPR-SE, a brute force search engine for robust and computational efficient CRISPR search design. Check out our paper here and visit our CRISPR-SE website for your CRISPR gRNA design if you are concerned the potential sgRNA off-target effect.
Dec-19, 2020
HiCAR pre-print is online at bioRxiv! Check it out: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.02.366062v2
HiCAR is a multi-omics co-assay that requires 50-100k cells, and enables simultaneous assessment of cis-regulatory chromatin interactions and chromatin accessibility, as well as evaluation of the transcriptome, which represents the functional output of chromatin structure and accessibility. Great job Xiaolin and Yu who lead the effort of this work!
Dec-1, 2020
Dr. Derek Peters joined our lab as a postdoctoral fellow. Derek received his MD-PhD training from Harvard-MIT and did two-year surgical residency at Duke. Derek did his PhD with Drs. Chad Cowan and Kiran Musunuru, and his graduate reserach focused on the applicaiton of genome editing and human pluripotent stem cells to characterize genetic factors underlying dieases predisposition, including non-coding DNA variants. In the Diao lab, he is insterested in understanding how and why muscle regeneration failure contribute to tissue loss pheontyoe in the critical limb ischemia patients and animal models.
Nov-2, 2020
Our collaborated work with Dr. Greg Wang at UNC Chapel Hill entitled "BAHCC1 binds H3K27me3 via a conserved BAH module to mediate gene silencing and oncogenesis" is online in Nature Genetics. More details: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-020-00729-3
Sep-18, 2020
The Diao lab has become part of 4DN consortium (phase 2). We look forward to working with the world leaders of 3D genome and gene regulation to study chromatin structure and function dynamics in skeletal muscle damage and repair.
Sep-1, 2020
Yarui receive the 2020 NIH/NHGRI Genomic Innovator Awards. With this $2.38M research funding in five years, we will analyze the molecular composition associated with non-coding DNA and RNA sequences, and determine their regulatory role in development and human diseases. Click here for NIH announcement. https://www.genome.gov/news/news-release/NHGRI-announces-2020-genomic-innovator-awards
Aug-31, 2020
Sam Reisman and Zac Farino, both 1st year CMB students, started their fall rotation with us. Welcome Sam and Zac!
July-15, 2020
Yarui receive grant from Fusion Oncoproteins in Childhood Cancers (FusOnC2) Consortium, which is associated with the Beau Biden Cancer MoonshotSM Initiative , to study gene regulation of PAX3-FOXO1 fusion protein in Rhabdomyosarcoma.
May-20, 2020
We received research funding from Elsa U. Pardee foundation (https://pardeefoundation.org/) to support the project to study a novel kinase and its targeted inhibitor in Rhabdomyosarcoma. Elsa U. Pardee Foundation grants are devoted to cancer research with about $110.5 million given to over 300 different institutions across the United States since 1944. Thank you Pardee Foundation!
May-15, 2020
Diao lab is re-open after two-month lab shut down since March-18, 2020! Let's stay safe, healthy, productive, and happy in the era of COVID19!
Feb-12, 2020
We have officially become part of Duke Center for Genomic and Computational Biology (GCB). Look forward to collaborating with and contributing to the GCB community!
Jan-22, 2020
Our collaborative work Dr. Ben Alman's lab is published on Nature Cell Biology. In this study, Yu provides his expertise on single-cell RNA-seq analysis to study how erythromyeloid progenitors give rise to a population of osteoclasts that contribute to bone homeostasis and repair. Check it out this cool paper!
Nov-25, 2019
Apoorva Lyengar from UPGG program and the CMB student Oliver Chung joined the lab for winter rotation. Apoorva will be working on developing MPRA assays and Oliver will study gene expression of FAP in skeletal muscle regeneration. Welcome Apoorva and Oliver!
Oct-07, 2019
Yarui is awarded the 2019 V Scholar Grant on behalf of Duke Cancer Institute. The V Scholar Grant supports young tenure-track faculty early in their cancer research careers by funding promising basic research or translational projects. Thanks V foundation!!! Victory over cancer!!!
Sep-09, 2019
Our paper about the long-range chromatin interactions among 18,943 gene promoters, 70,329 enhancers, and 27,325 noncoding sequence variants associated with 2,117 human diseases and traits in 27 human cell and tissue types is published in Nature Genetics. Check it out!
Sep-02, 2019
Sandy Srinivasan from UPGG program started her rotation project in our lab. Sandy will be working on an exciting project to develop MPRA and Mosaic-seq to study the regulatory role of GWAS SNP on gene expression.
Aug-19, 2019
Our collaborated work with Dr. David Kirsch's lab is accepted by PNAS. In this study, we performed single-cell RNA-seq analysis to study the role of neutrophils in tumor resistance in response to radiation therapy. Check it out!
Aug-12, 2019
Our single-cell RNA-seq and single-nuclei ATAC-seq data about muscle regeneration are freshly off the server! Tons of exciting data!!!
Aug-8, 2019
We received the grant from Kahn Program and Translating Duke Health (TDH) to support our effort to establish innovative functional genomics tools to study the role and mechanism of non-coding genetic risk variants in human diseases.
Aug-5, 2019
Yarui gave an oral presentation at the 2019 Gordon Research Conference: Genome Architecture in Cell Fate and Disease. Thanks the organizers of the Gordon Research Conference for the opportunity to share our research!
July-30, 2019
Yu has received a two-year postdoc fellowship from Regeneration Next Initiative to support his study on gene regulation in muscle regeneration. Congratulations Yu and Thank you RNI!
July-12, 2019
Yarui has received the 2019 Glenn Foundation for Medical Research and AFAR Grants for Junior Faculty (Formerly called the AFAR Research Grants for Junior Faculty) for our project to study gene regulation in muscle stem cell aging. Thanks Glenn Foundation and AFAR for the support!
June-25, 2019
Our collaborated work with the Soderling lab is published in Neuron! Check it out!
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31272828
May-13, 2019
Yarui is selected as one of the the Whitehead Scholars for the "exceptional potential for research and research training in the biomedical sciences" at Duke. Thanks Whitehead Charitable Foundation for supporting our research program!
March-1, 2019
The Diao lab has succefully recruited our 3rd and 4th postdoc fellow, Dr. Tongyu Sun and Dr. Xin Lin. Tongyu received his PhD training at Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences with Dr. Jun Qin to study epigenetic regulation and tumorigenesis. Xin received his graduate training on Veterinary Medicine at Zhejiang University, China with Dr. Caiqiao Zhang. Xin studied how aging affects chicken postovulatory follicle (POF). In the Diao lab, Tongyu will be developing CRISPR-BioID based approach to study the transcriptional and epigenetic control of non-coding regulatory DNA and RNAs in stem cell and cancer cells. As a mouse expert, Xin will be using mouse model to study gene reguation of muscle stem cell in response to injury in heathy and oncogenic environment. Welcome Tongyu and Xin!
Feb-26, 2019
After internal selection, Yarui is nominated by Duke Cancer Institute to represent Duke for the national competition of the V scholar pediatric cancer research award.
Dec-4, 2018
The Diao lab become part of Duke Cancer Institute. We are going to employ cutting-edge functional genomics tools and single-cell approaches to study transcriptional regulation in rhabdomyosarcoma and glioblastoma.
Dec-1, 2018
Dr. Xiaolin Wei joined our lab as a postdoc fellow. Xiaolin received his PhD training in Peking University/Tsinghua University/NIBS(PTN) joint program (the best biomedical graduate training program in China) in Dr. Xiao Liu's laboratory. As the first PhD student in Dr. Liu's lab, he spearheaded the effort to develop novel genome assembly method by designing barcoded BAC libraries. He also studied 3D chromatin structure between sister nematode species C. briggsae and C. nigoni. In the Diao lab, Xiaolin will lead the effort to develp cutting-edge multi-omics and single-cell genomics tools to study gene regualtion in stem cell. Welcome Xiaolin!
Oct-30, 2018
Today we did the very first experiment in the Diao lab - we transformed the Tn5 expressing plasmid into E. coli. to express and purify the magic enzyme for our single-cell ATAC-seq assays!
Oct-2, 2018
Dr. Yu Xiang joined our lab after a 19-hour behind-the-wheel driving from Texas. Welcome, Yu!
Sep-30, 2018
Yarui join the Duke University Program in Cell and Molecular Biology (CMB)! Thanks to CMB committee!
Sep-04, 2018
Diao lab is open on the third floor of Nanaline Duke Building!
Links to welcome to new faculty member from Cell biology (https://www.cellbio.duke.edu), Regeneration Next (https://sites.duke.edu/regenerationnext/2018/08/22/new-faculty-yarui-diao-sheds-light-on-dna-non-coding-dark-matter/), and Orthopaedic Surgery (https://ortho.duke.edu/latest-news/welcome-new-faculty-member-yarui-diao-phd)