Lei Liu

Fentanyl and fentanyl-xylazine co-exposure influence mitochondrial transcriptional programs in human trophoblasts

This study examines how fentanyl and fentanyl-xylazine co-exposure affect mitochondrial transcription in human trophoblasts, showing suppression in syncytiotrophoblasts and discordant regulation with FMX.

The cellular and genetic basis of inflorescence divergence between maize and teosinte

This study identifies cellular and genetic changes in maize and teosinte ears, showing how cytokinin signaling and transcription factor expression differences drive cob thickening and increased kernel number during domestication.

Assessing and Optimizing Low-Frequency Somatic Mutation Detection: A Multi-Platform High-Throughput Sequencing Perspective

This study evaluates and improves low-frequency somatic mutation detection across multiple sequencing platforms using a simulated benchmark and a machine learning-based caller.

CMS: Achieving Uniform and High-Quality Sequencing across Challenging Non-canonical Genomic Regions

CMS improves sequencing uniformity and accuracy in non-canonical genomic regions by optimizing chemistry and enzymatic systems, reducing low-coverage bins and false negatives.

Novel Engineered AAV Variants Demonstrate Superior Blood-Brain Barrier Penetration and Safety in Non-Human Primates

The paper develops novel AAV variants with improved BBB penetration and safety in NHPs, showing higher brain transduction and reduced organ toxicity.

LRP6-Guided Engineering of AAV9 Variants with Enhanced Blood-Brain Barrier Penetration and Reduced Liver Tropism in Non-Human Primates

This study engineers AAV9 variants guided by LRP6 to enhance BBB penetration and reduce liver tropism in non-human primates.

The Epigenetic Factor PHF13 Governs Trophoblast Stemness and Differentiation

This study identifies PHF13 as a chromatin regulator critical for trophoblast stemness and differentiation, showing its role in maintaining stemness and restricting differentiation through gene regulatory networks.

Antagonistic interactions between CLAVATA receptors shape maize ear development

This study identifies BAM1D as a co-receptor interacting with FEA3 in maize, revealing antagonistic genetic interactions that regulate inflorescence meristem size.

Deep contrastive learning enables genome-wide virtual screening

DrugCLIP, a contrastive dense-retrieval model for pockets and molecules, beats docking on DUD-E and LIT-PCBA and screened about 10,000 human AlphaFold2 proteins in 24 hours.

Neural mechanisms of handedness for precision drawing: hand-dependent engagement of cortical networks for bimanual control

This study uses fMRI to investigate neural mechanisms of handedness during precision drawing, finding differential engagement of motor and parietal networks for left-hand versus right-hand tasks.

Signatures of social pain empathy: general and process-specific brain-wide representations of social exclusion and separation

This study identifies brain-wide neural representations for social exclusion and separation empathy using fMRI and multivariate pattern analysis, revealing both overlapping and distinct neural signatures.

Further expansion of methane metabolism in the Archaea

The paper identifies new methane-metabolizing archaea in Bathyarchaeota and Verstraetearchaeota, expanding known methane metabolism beyond Euryarchaeota.