Latest Li Lab News
May, 2025
Drake published a paper on (S)-Valdiazen titled "Pseudomonas Virulence Factor produces Autoinducer (S)-Valdiazen" in ACS Chemical Biology.
May, 2025
Olivia and Caitlin participated in the NC DNA day and went to a high school to teach a biology class on DNA.
May, 2025
Professor Bo Li returned from sabbatical. Eveyone is excited to see you in person again.
April, 2025
The entire lab participated in the UNC Science Expo and we had so much engaging with the local community.
March, 2025
Congratulations to Jack for presenting his honor thesis! We are proud to see you grow as a chemist.
March, 2025
Rachel received the UNC Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF)! Congratulations!
March, 2025
Congratulations to Dr. Drake Crawford for successfully defending! We wish you all the best in Kingsport, TN as a PhD scientist!
March, 2025
Congratulations to Dr. William Simke for successfully defending! We wish you all the best in Nashville, TN as a postdoc at Vanderbilt!
February, 2025
Congratulations to Alexis for passing her oral exams! We are proud of you!
February 2025
Alyssa joins the Li Lab as undergraduate researcher!
January 2025
Professor Li, Ryan, and Chris achieved exciting milestones: Dr. Li gave a talk and Ryan and Chris presented posters at the International Conference on Natural Product Discovery and Development in the Genomic Era.
December 2024
Olivia received the Sachiko Sakura Chemical Research Memorial Fund.
December 2024
Olivia, Rachel, Betty, and Will published a paper titled '"Activation of Dithiolopyrrolone Antibiotics by Cellular Reductants" in Biochemistry.'
November 2024
Caitlin and Olivia presented a poster at the Merck UNC Research Forum and Idea Exchange. Great job!
November 2024
Qiang, Caitlin, and Drake published a paper titled '"A diazeniumdiolate signal in Pseudomonas syringae upregulates virulence factors and promotes survival in plants" in Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions.'
November 2024
Welcome graduate students Gabby Beal, Chiara Licata, Jordyn Wilson, and Felicia Baerje to the Li Lab!
October 2024
Congrats to Sanchit who gave his 3rd Year Seminar.
October 2024
Drake, Caitlin, and Olivia presented a poster at the UNC BASF Symposium.
October 2024
Caitlin and Olivia presented a ooster at the UNC Celebration of Women+ in Chemistry.
August 2024
Professor Li starts her Sabbatical.
August 2024
Everyone participated in the chemistry volleyball tournament and had a great time!
August, 2024
Welcome post-doc Sohan Hazra to the Li Lab!
July 2024
Betty published a paper titled '"Analysis of Co-localized Biosynthetic Gene Clusters Identifies a Membrane-Permeabilizing Natural Product" in Journal of Natural Products.'
July 2024
Will, Andrew, Jon, and Caitlin published a paper titled '"Structural Basis for Methine Excision by a Heme Oxygenase-like Enzyme" in ACS Central Science.'
July 2024
Will achieved an exciting milestone and presented a poster at the Enzymes, Coenzymes and Metabolic Pathways Gordon Research Conference.
June 2024
Olivia presented a poster at the Empowering Women in Organic Chemistry Conference. Good job Olivia!
May 2024
Olivia and Caitlin participated in the NC DNA Day.
April 2024
Olivia gave her 3rd Year Seminar.
April 2024
The lab participated in the UNC Science Expo.
April 2024
Sanchit passed his Orals. Congratulations!
April 2024
Everyone participated in the chemistry kickball tournament and had a great time!
March 2024
Chris achieved an exciting milestone by passing his Orals.
March 2024
Jack received the SURF Fellowship. Great!
February 2024
Rachel Z! Welcome to the lab as undergraduate researcher!
January 2024
Caitlin Presented a Conference at the Enzyme Mechanisms Conference.
January 2024
Rachel, Betty, and Gina published a paper titled '"The Hybrid Antibiotic Thiomarinol A Overcomes Intrinsic Resistance in Escherichia coli Using a Privileged Dithiolopyrrolone Moiety" in ACS Infectious Diseases.'
January 2024
Congratulations to Rachel on a successful PhD defense!
November 2023
Jack received the UNC James Maguire Memorial Award.
November 2023
Congratulations to Betty on a successful PhD defense!
November 2023
Welcome to our new graduate student Alexis! Happy to have you!
October 2023
Betty published a paper titled '"How nature incorporates sulfur and selenium into bioactive natural products" in Current Opinion in Chemical Biology.'
October 2023
Qiang and Betty published a paper titled '"Purification and characterization of tomato arginine decarboxylase and its inhibition by the bacterial small molecule phevamine A" in Protein Expression and Purification.'
October 2023
Drake and Will presented posters at the Carolina Biophysics Symposium.
September 2023
Caitlin gave her 3rd Year Seminar. Good job sharing your work!
August 2023
Andy and Betty published a paper titled '"Chemoproteomics Reveals Disruption of Metal Homeostasis and Metalloproteins by the Antibiotic Holomycin" in ACS Chemical Biology.'
August 2023
Everyone participated in the chemistry volleyball tournament and had a great time!
August 2023
Caitlin received the CBI Training Grant.
June 2023
Josh joined the lab as a postdoc. We are excited to have you!
May 2023
Olivia and Caitlin participate in the NC DNA Day.
May 2023
Katie published a paper titled '"Pseudomonas virulence factor controls expression of virulence genes in Pseudomonas entomophila" in Plos one.'
May 2023
Nicolas Keller is named Summer SUROC Scholar from Saint Louis University.
April 2023
All lab members participated in the UNC Science Expo.
April 2023
Olivia passed her Orals and received the NSF GRFP. Congratulations!
February 2023
Caitlin achieved an exciting milestone by passing her Orals.
January 2023
Congratulations to Katie on a successful PhD defense!
January 2023
Welcome to our new graduate student Chris!
January 2023
Betty and Rachel published a paper titled '"A Permissive Amide N-Methyltransferase for Dithiolopyrrolones" in ACS Catalysis.'
November 2022
Congratulations to Adam on a successful PhD defense!
November 2022
Welcome to Sanchit, a graduate student, that joined the Li Lab.
September 2022
Adam and Zach published a paper titled '"Biosynthetic origin of formylaminooxyvinylglycine and characterization of the formyltransferase GvgI" in Biochemistry.'
August 2022
Olivia received the CBI Training Grant.
August 2022
Congratulations to Rachel on a successful PhD defense!
July 2022
Jon, Andrew, and Henry published a paper titled '"Structure and Function of a Dehydrating Condensation Domain in Nonribosomal Peptide Biosynthesis" in JACS.'
April 20, 2022
Welcome graduate student Olivia Steiner to the Li Lab!
April 15, 2022
Great job, Professor Bo Li, for your invited presentation at UW Madison!
April 9, 2022
Lots of fun at the UNC Science Expo where we separated "small molecules", extracted anthocyanins from blueberries, and gave tours of our lab!
April 6, 2022
Congratulations to L. Henry Bryant for successfully defending his Biology Department Undergradutate Honor's Thesis! One Step closer to graduation!
March 9, 2022
Congratulations to Drake Crawford for successfully presenting his third year seminar!
January 12, 2022
Congratulations to Will Simke for successfully presenting his third year seminar!
January 10, 2022
Welcome post-doc Ryan Mull to the Li Lab!
November 29, 2021
Welcome graduate student Caitlin Vitro to the Li Lab!
November 19, 2021
Congratulations to Jon Patteson, Andrew Putz, Will Simke, Henry Bryant and collaborators from the R. David Britt lab at UC Davis for their paper in Science in which they discovered the biosynthesis of a novel copper containing antibiotic, Fluopsin C, from Pseudomonas aeruginosa. You can read the paper in Science magazine here!
November 12, 2021
Congratulations to Gina Morgan, Drake Crawford, and our collaborators in Jeff Aubé lab for their paper in ACS Chemical Biology outlining the biosynthesis of seven heterocycles produced by the pvf gene cluster from Pseudomonas fluorescens Pf0-1!. You can read the paper in ACS ChemBio here!
September 1, 2021
Congratulations to Torhera Durand for her acceptance into the Chemical Biology Interface Program!
August 27, 2021
Congratulations to Jon Patteson for successfully defending his thesis! Best of Luck at Merck!
August 3, 2021
Congratulations to Rachel (Max) Johnson, Andy Chan, Caylie McGlade, Breanne Hatfield, and our collaborators at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for their paper in JACS examining the mode of action of the hybrid antibiotic thiomarinol! You can read the paper here!
May 1, 2021
Welcome graduate student Torhera Durand to the Li Lab!
January 28, 2021
Congratulations to Ashley, Gina, and Katie for their paper characterizing the secretome regulated by PVF! You can read the paper in ACS Chem Bio.
October 2, 2020
Congratulations Dr. Gina Morgan on successfully defending her thesis! We wish her the best of luck at Oerth Bio.
June 25, 2019
Congratulations to Drake Crawford and Will Simke for obtaining a T32 Biophysics Training Grant Fellowship!
July 14, 2020
Congratulations to Gina for her paper characterizing the N-oxygenase in PVF biosynthesis! You can read the paper in Angewandte here!
May 1, 2020
We welcome our new post-doc, Dr. Qiang Guo, to the lab!
April 25, 2020
Welcome new first year grad students Drake Crawford and Will Simke to the lab!
Bo Li, Department of Chemistry, CB#3290, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3290