Chunlai CHEN Ph.D.
Associate Professor
1999-2003 Peking University B.Sc.
2003-2008 Peking University Ph.D.
2008-2015 University of Pennsylvania Postdoc
2015-2018 School of Life Sciences Tsinghua University Assistant Professor
2018-now School of Life Sciences Tsinghua University Associate Professor
Research Area:
1) Develop cutting-edge single molecule fluorescence methods.
2) Dynamics and molecular mechanisms of target searching of proteins on DNA.
3) Molecular mechanisms of CRISPR proteins in target searching and cleavage.
Selected publications
1. Yu Miao (#), Yuxiao Cheng (#), Yushi Xia, Yongzhen Hei, Wenjuan Wang, Qionghai Dai (*), Jinli Suo (*), Chunlai Chen (*), (2025) Supervised multi-frame dual-channel denoising enables long-term single-molecule FRET under extremely low photon budget, Nat Commun, 16(1), 74
2. Sudheer K. Cheppali (#), Chang Li (#), Wenjing Xing (#), Ruirui Sun, Mengyi Yang, Yi Xue, Si-Yao Lu, Jun Yao, Shan Sun (*), Chunlai Chen (*), Sen-Fang Sui (*), (2024) Single-molecule two- and three-colour FRET studies reveal a transition state in SNARE disassembly by NSF, Nat Commun, 16(1), 250
3. Jiawei Zhao (#), Matthias Elgeti (#)(*), Evan S. O’Brien, Cecília P. Sár, Amal EI Daibani, Jie Heng, Xiaoou Sun, Elizabeth White, Tao Che, Wayne L. Hubbell, Brian K. Kobilka (*), and Chunlai Chen (*), (2024) Ligand efficacy modulates conformational dynamics of the µ-opioid receptor, Nature, 629, 474–480
4. Shouyue Zhang (#), Ao Sun (#), Jing-Mei Qian (#), Shuo Lin (#), Wenjing Xing, Yun Yang, Han-Zhou Zhu, Xin-Yi Zhou, Yan-Shuo Guo, Yun Liu, Yu Meng, Shu-Lin Jin, Cheng-Ping Li, Zhaofu Li, Shuai Jin, Jian-Hua Wang, Meng-Qiu Dong, Caixia Gao, Chunlai Chen (*), Yang Bai (*), Jun-Jie Gogo Liu (*), (2024) Pro-CRISPR PcrIIC1 associated Cas9 system for enhanced bacterial immunity, Nature, 630, 484-492
5. Wenjing Xing (#), Danyuan Li (#), Wenjuan Wang, Jun-Jie Gogo Liu (*), Chunlai Chen (*), (2024) Conformational dynamics of CasX (Cas12e) in mediating DNA cleavage revealed by single-molecule FRET, Nucleic Acids Research, 52, 9014-9027
6. Shuqi Zhou, Yu Miao, Haoren Qiu, Yuan Yao, Wenjuan Wang, Chunlai Chen (*), (2024) Deep learning based local feature classification to automatically identify single molecule fluorescence events, Communications Biology, 7, 1404
7. Danyuan Li (#), Shouyue Zhang (#), Shuo Lin (#), Wenjing Xing (#), Yun Yang, Fengxia Zhu, Dingding Su (*), Chunlai Chen (*), Jun-Jie Gogo Liu (*), (2024) Cas12e orthologs evolve variable structural elements to facilitate dsDNA cleavage, Nat Commun, 15, 10727
8. Yuan Zhang (#), Chen Yang (#), Sijia Peng, Jing Ling, Peng Chen, Yumiao Ma, Wenjuan Wang, Zhixing Chen (*), and Chunlai Chen (*), (2023) General strategy to improve the photon budget of thiol-conjugated cyanine dyes, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 145, 7, 4187-4198
9. Ruirui Sun, Yuqian Zhao, Wenjuan Wang, Jun-Jie Gogo Liu, and Chunlai Chen (*), (2023) Nonspecific interactions between Cas12a and dsDNA located downstream of the PAM mediate target search and assist AsCas12a for DNA cleavage, Chem Sci, 14, 3839-3851
10. Xiaolin Niu, Zhonghe Xu, Yufan Zhang, Xiaobing Zuo, Chunlai Chen (*) and Xianyang Fang (*), (2023) Structural and dynamic mechanisms for coupled folding and tRNA recognition of a translational T-box riboswitch, Nat Commun, 14(1), 7394
Contact information
email :chunlai@tsinghua.edu.cn
