Qi Laboratory
The Qi Laboratory is committed to decoding lipid metabolic causes, exploring lipid-based therapeutic avenues, and screening lipid biomarkers for lifestyle-related conditions like diabetes, obesity, fatty liver, and cardiovascular diseases.
About the Qi Laboratory
Lipids, commonly known as fats or oils, are essential for our bodies, but they can drive diseases when imbalanced.
Our lipid-centric research focuses on three areas:
- Investigating lipid-protein interactions to address mitochondrial dysfunction, particularly impaired mitophagy, thereby identifying novel lipid targets for treating obesity, fatty liver, and related cancers.
- Studying lipid distribution within the cell to gain new understanding of vascular ageing and inflammation, thereby developing innovative treatments for ageing and cardiovascular diseases.
- Leveraging cutting-edge lipidomics and machine learning-based bioinformatics to screen lipid biomarkers that can predict diabetes outcomes following lifestyle interventions like diet and exercise.
Centre for Cardiovascular Research
- Diabetes
- Obesity
- Fatty Liver
- Cardiovascular Diseases
- Lipidomics
- Bioinformatics
- Microscopy
Regulation of hepatic insulin signaling and glucose homeostasis by sphingosine kinase 2
Deep serum lipidomics identifies evaluative and predictive biomarkers for individualized glycemic responses to successful weight loss: a PREVIEW sub-study.
Targeting the SphK1/S1P/PFKFB3 axis suppresses hepatocellular carcinoma progression by disrupting glycolytic energy supply that drives tumor angiogenesis.
Ablation of sphingosine kinase 2 suppresses fatty liver-associated hepatocellular carcinoma via downregulation of ceramide transfer protein.
ORP2 delivers cholesterol to the plasma membrane in exchange for phosphatidylinositol 4, 5-biphosphate (PI(4,5)P2).
People
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Dr Yanfei (Jacob) Qi
Laboratory Head
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Dr Xin Tracy Liu
Research Officer -
Yingxin Celia Jiang
PhD candidate -
Yu Jerry Huang
PhD candidate -
Elizaveta James
PhD candidate -
Yuanxin Cathy Xu
PhD candidate
Student Opportunities
Working alongside world-leading scientists, PhD and MPhil students will learn applied science across molecular/cellular biology, pathophysiology, animal work and cohort studies, while mastering state-of-the-art technologies like lipidomics, bioinformatics and microscopy.
To learn more about student opportunities in the Qi Laboratory and for all general enquiries relating to our work, please contact Dr Qi.
