Lab Members
Boyi Gan, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
Professor
MD Anderson Faculty Profile
Graduate School Faculty Profile
Awards and Accolades
Andrew Sabin Family Fellow
Kimmel Scholar
Ellison Foundation New Scholar
Phone: 713-792-8653
Email: BGan@MDAnderson.org
Li Zhuang
Laboratory Manager
David Huo
Research Assistant I (2024–present)
David joined the lab in 2024 after graduating from The University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Science in biomedical engineering.
Hyemin Lee
Research Investigator (2012–2022)
Instructor (2022–present)
Hyemin joined the lab in 2012 after graduating with her Ph.D. from the Institute of Molecular Medicine and Max-Plank-Research-Group on Stem Cell Aging at the University of Ulm in Germany. She has published manuscripts in Nature Cell Biology and Oncotarget and has received several awards including: Excellence in Basic Science non-clinical Research (2020) and Outstanding Performance and Research (2018) from MD Anderson.
Guang Lei
Graduate Student (2018–2023)
Research Scientist (2023–2024)
Instructor (2024–present)
Guang joined the lab in 2018 and has published manuscripts in Cancer Cell, Cancer Discovery, Cell Research, Nature Communications, Nature Reviews Cancer, Oncogene, Protein & Cell, and BioEssays. He received the 2024 STAT Wunderkind Award and the 2024 Boot Walk Faculty Seed Award.
Yuelong Yan
Postdoctoral Fellow (2019–2024)
Instructor (2024–present)
Yuelong joined the lab in 2019 after graduating with his Ph.D. from Peking University in Beijing, China in 2018. He has previously published manuscripts in PLOS Biology, Cell Discovery, and Nature Communication.
Anagha Alapati
Undergraduate Student, (2022–present)
Anagha joined the lab in 2022 as an undergraduate student from Rice University and is currently completing the 2022 CPRIT CURE Summer Program in our lab.
Xiong Chen
Postdoctoral Fellow (2022–present)
Xiong joined the lab in 2022 after graduating with his Ph.D. from Xiamen University in 2021. He has previously been published in Cancer Research.
Zhihao Xu
Postdoctoral Fellow (2023–present)
Zhihao joined the lab in 2023 after graduating with his Ph.D. from University of Science and Technology of China in 2022. He has previously been published in Cell Death & Disease and Frontiers in Immunology.
Zhengze Lu
Postdoctoral Fellow (2023–present)
Zhengze joined the lab in 2023 after graduating with his Ph.D. from Sichuan University in Chengdu, China in 2022. He has previously published manuscripts in Journal of Controlled Release and Nanoscale.
Qidong Li
Postdoctoral Fellow (2023–present)
Qidong joined the lab in 2023 after completing his first round of postdoctoral training at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in Hefei, China. He earned his Ph.D. degree from USTC in 2019. Qidong has previously published manuscripts in Cell Metabolism and Cell Reports.
Mingchuang Sun
Graduate Student, non-UTHealth Houston (2023–present)
Mingchuang joined the lab in 2023 and has previously published manuscripts in Advanced Science and Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research.
Shengrong Wu
Graduate Student, non-UTHealth Houston (2024–present)
Shengrong joined the lab in 2024 and has an M.D. from the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University.
Xi Zhao
Postdoctoral Fellow (2024–present)
Xi Zhao joined the lab in 2024 after graduating with her Ph.D. from Peking University in Beijing, China in 2024. She has previously published manuscripts in Redox Biology and Cell Death & Disease.
Previous Lab Members
Amber Horbath
Research Assistant I (2020–2022)
Research Assistant II (2022–2024)
Amber joined the lab in 2020 after graduating from The University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor of science in biology. She has co-authored manuscripts published in Nature Communications, Cancer Discovery, and Molecular Cell. Amber is currently getting her master's degree in Molecular Pathology and Experimental Medicine from the University of Southern California.
Chao Mao
Postdoctoral Fellow (2020–2022)
Instructor (2023–2024)
Chao joined the lab in 2019 after graduating with his Ph.D. from Central South University in Changsha, China in 2018. He has published manuscripts in Nature, Molecular Cell, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and received the 2022 Stat Wunderkind, the 2022 Harter Prize, the 2022 Odyssey Outstanding Publication Award and the 2021 Jeffrey Lee Cousins Fellowship in Lung Cancer Research. Chao is currently a principal investigator at Nanjing University in China.
Jun Cheng
Graduate Student, non-UTHealth Houston (2022–2024)
Jun joined the lab in 2022 as a graduate student and now works as a surgeon at Hunan Cancer Hospital & the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University.
Xiaoguang Liu
Postdoctoral Fellow (2017–2022)
Instructor (2022–2023)
Email: XiaoguangLiu@zju.edu.cn
Xiaoguang joined the lab in 2017 after graduating with his Ph.D. from East China Normal University in Shanghai, China. He has published manuscripts in Nature Cell Biology, The FASEB Journal and Nature Cell Biology and received the Jeffrey Lee Cousins Fellowship in Lung Cancer Research from MD Anderson in 2020 and 2021. Xiaoguang currently is a principal investigator at Zhejiang University.
Zhou Yang
Graduate Student, non-UTHealth Houston (2021)
Zhou joined the lab in 2021 as a graduate student and now works as a resident doctor at Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center.
Shiqi Wu
Graduate Student, non-UTHealth Houston (2019–2021)
Shiqi joined the lab in 2019 and published his manuscript in PNAS. He is now a medical student at Xi'an Jiaotong University in Xi'an, China.
Pranavi Koppula
Graduate Student (2016–2021)
Pranavi joined the lab in 2016 and graduated with her Ph.D. in 2021 from MD Anderson UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. During her time in the lab, she published manuscripts in Nature Communications, iScience and Journal of Biological Chemistry. She also received the CPRIT Graduate Student Award in 2018 and 2019, the 2018 Steve Lasher and Janiece Longoria Student Research Award in Cancer Biology, the 2018 Dr. John J. Kopchick Research Award, and was a 2017 Center of Cancer Epigenetics (CCE) Scholar. She now works as a scientist at Forma Therapeutics in the department of Translational Science.
Yilei Zhang
Postdoctoral Fellow (2015–2019)
Instructor (2019–2020)
Email: ZhangYilei@xjtu.edu.cn
Yilei joined the lab in 2015 and published manuscripts in Nature Communications, Cancer Research, Cell Research, Cell Cycle and Nature Cell Biology. He now works as a professor at Xi'an Jiaotong University in Xi'an, China.
Weijie Cheng
Research Assistant I (2018–2020)
Weijie joined the lab in 2018 and co-authored manuscripts published in Oncogene, Nature Communications and Cancer Research. He is now a medical student at Long School of Medicine, UT Health San Antonio.
Molina Das
Student (2018–2019)
Molina joined the lab in 2018 and co-authored manuscripts published in Nature Communications and iScience. She is now a graduate student at The Institute of Cancer Research, London.
Sei Sho
Student (2016)
Sei is currently a graduate student at the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine.
Raj Kumar Yadav
Postdoctoral Fellow (2016–2018)
Raj is currently a research scientist at Kiromic Biopharma.
Anoop Singh Chauhan
Postdoctoral Fellow (2016–2018)
Anoop is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Birmingham.
Kwadwo Owusu Ansah
Student (2015)
Kwadwo is currently a medical student at UNC Chapel Hill School of Medicine.
Fangyan Dai
Instructor (2013–2017)
Fangyan is currently a principal computational biologist at Hematologics.
Xiaowen Liu
Postdoctoral Fellow (2013–2016)
Xiaowen is currently a principal scientist at Laronde.
Zhen-Dong Xiao
Postdoctoral Fellow (2012–2017)
Zhen-Dong is currently a principal investigator at The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, China.
Donglai Wang
Postdoctoral Fellow (2012–2013)
Donglai is currently a principal investigator at Peking Union Medical College.
Aifu Lin
Postdoctoral Fellow (2012–2014)
Aifu is currently a principal investigator at Zhejiang University.