News

Dec 2023: Our mEnrich-seq paper at Nature Methods (link). Have you ever wished to sequence SPECIFIC bacteria but NOT the vast background (other bacteria) in microbiome? Motivated by this question, we developed mEnrich-seq: methylation-guided enrichment sequencing of bacterial taxa of interest from microbiome. Congrats, Lei!

Jun 2023: Congratulations to Yimeng, who will start her own lab at Southeast University in China!

Dec 2022: Our new review + perspective at Nature Reviews Genetics (link). We highlight common (yet not always widely recognized) pitfalls that are shared among frequently used technologies for mapping DNA and RNA modifications, and discuss strategies to help technology developers and users mitigate their effects. Congrats, Yimeng!

Dec 2022: Congratulations to Peixin, who will start as an Assistant Professor at Mississippi State University!

Feb 2022: Our 6mASCOPE paper at Science (link). To help clarify an active debate over 6mA in eukaryotes, we developed a meta-epigenomic method to quantitatively deconvolve 6mA events from a genomic DNA sample into species of interest and sources of contamination. Congrats, Yimeng!

Aug 2021: Our team received a new R01 grant (in collaboration with Kristen Brennand @ Yale) from NIH/NIMH to resolve complex gene splicing in brain disorders.

May 2021: Our team received a new R01 grant (PI: Gang Fang) from NIH/NHGRI to detect different types of DNA modifications from the human genome using long read sequencing.  
 
April 2021: Our nanodisco paper at Nature Methods (link). De novo discovery of three primary forms of DNA methylation (6mA, 4mC and 5mC) from individual bacteria and microbiome using nanopore sequencing. Congrats, Alan! Media coverage: GenomeWeb, BioEngineer, The Medical News, PHYS, ScienMag.
 
Dec 2020: Gang received an R35 (Maximizing Investigators' Research Award) grant from NIGMS to develop methods for high resolution characterization of bacterial epigenomes and microbiome. 

July 2020: Congratulations to Pedro, who will take a leadership role as the Lab Head of France Genomique!

Jan 2020: Our core bacterial DNA methyltransferases paper is out at Trends in Microbiology (link). We reported a number of highly conserved DNA methyltransferases in Bacteria, and advocate for a community-wide integrative strategy to elucidate biological functions of DNA methylation in pathogens and commensals. Congrats, Pedro!  

Nov 2019: Our C. diff epigenome paper is out at Nature Microbiology (link). A core DNA methyltransferase regulating C. diff sporulation, the key biological process essential for C. diff transmission. Congrats, Pedro! Media coverage: GenomeWeb, Technology Networks, Medical News, PHYS, MEDPAGE Today, PacBio Blog

Nov 2019: Our Nrxn1alpha splicing paper at Nature Genetics (link). It is important to resolve complex splicing of disease-linked genes to better understand underlying mechanisms. Congrats, Erin and Shijia! Media coverage: ScienceDaily, Medical News, Medical Express, PacBio Blog.

Sep 2019: Our BriGE paper at Nature Communications (link). Searching for epistasis (or genetic interactions) from GWAS data between pathways.

Aug 2019: Michael successfully defended his master thesis. Congrats, Michael!

Dec 2018:  Our Nature Reviews Genetics review on bacterial epigenomes and third-generation sequenicng (link). Congrats, John! So many unknowns and exciting opporunities. Join us! Epigenomes of Pathogens, Microbiome and Human; Technology Development and Systems Biology (link)

Sep 2018: Our team (MSSM and NYU) won an R01 grant (PI: Gang Fang) from NIH/NIGMS to study the impact of antibiotics on gut microbiome at unprecendeted resolution. 

Jun 2018: Our team received a grant (PI: Gang Fang) from Michael J. Fox Foundation to develop biomarkers for Parkinson's Disease diagnosis based on high-resolution mtDNA damage mapping. 

Apr 2018: SMRTER paper published at Genome Research (link). Congrats, Shijia! PacBio seq to detect m6dA in eukaryotes: 1) Confident mapping doable for genomes w/ high m6dA/A%. 2) but for genomes w/ low m6dA/A%, need caution for high FDR & critical to have independent validation.

Mar 2018: Gang was named the 2018 Hirschl Research Scholar by Irma T. Hirschl/Monique Weill-Caulier Trust.

Dec 2017: mBin paper published at Nature Biotechnology (link). Congrats, John!  Exploit the "hidden" yet highly rich epigenomes of microbiota to fundamentally improve the resolution and completeness of metagenomic analyses. Media coverage: GEN NewsPacBioGenomeWebMD MagazineBioITWorldScience DailyInfection Control TodayPHYS. Also highlighted in Nature Methods (link).

Sep 2017: Our team (MSSM, Columbia, Harvard) received a pilot grant (PI: Gang Fang) to study DNA methylation and enrivonmental exposures. 

Jan 2017: Gang was named the 2017 Nash Family Research Scholar by the Friedman Brain Institute and will receive a pilot grant to study novel epigenetic factors in neuronal development and mental disorders.

Mar 2016: The paper on the role of microRNA-9 in schizoprenia from an iPSC-based study accepted by Cell Reports (link). 

Mar 2016: The paper on the existence of N6mA in mouse embryonic stem cells published in Nature (link). 

Nov 2015: The paper on the epigenetic regulation of V. cholerae growth published in PLoS Genetics (link). 

Sep 2015: Our team (MSSM, Harvard and NYU) won an R01 grant (PI: Gang Fang) from NIH/NIGMS to develop and apply novel methods for multi-scale and integrative characterization of bacterial epigenomes, with a focus on virulence and antibiotic resistance.

Jun 2015: SMALR paper published in Nature Communications (link). Press release. Media coverage: GEN, GenomeWeb, BioTechniques, PHYS, Infection Control, ScienceDaily, etc.

Jan 2015: hiPSC NPC WNT signaling paper published in Biological Psychiatry (link). 

Jan 2014: pAA paper published in Nature Communications (link)

Jan 2014: hiPSC NPC paper published in Molecular Psychiatry (link)

Aug 2013: Gang invited to Kavli Frontiers of Science, National Acadamy of Science  (link).

Jul 2013: Gang gave a Frontiers in Science talk, JPI meeting, ISMB (link).

May 2013: Gang won Best Dissertation Award from University of Minnesota  (link).

Mar 2013: Context effects on DNA polymerase kinetics, PLoS Comp Bio (link).

Jan 2013: Methylomes of two Mycoplasma strains published in PLoS Genetics (link).

Nov 2012: The methylome of the German outbreak E. Coli, Nature Biotechnology (link). Also, highlighted in Nature Reviews Genetics, Nature Reviews Microbiology. Media coverage: Bio-IT World, TheScientist, PHYS.

Oct 2012: Statistical modeling of kinetic variation data and the first map of human mitochondrial DNA modifications, Genome Research. (link)