Dr. Shengben Li, received ph. D. degree from Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2008, and worked as a postdoctoral researcher in University of California, Riverside during 2007 and 2014. The representative honors include National Outstanding Researcher in Agriculture, Leading Scholar of Ten Thousand Plan, Youth Leader of Science and Technology Innovation, and May 1st Medal of Guangdong Province. He was selected as academic committee member of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in 2015.

Research interest
1）Posttranscriptional regulation of plant gene expression. Identification of the new players in plant small RNA pathway and exploration of the mechanisms underlying plant small RNA biogenesis and functionality; 2) Functional study of crop small RNAs. Development of novel functional genomic systems to reveal the biological function of plant small RNAs gene widely; 3) Mechanisms responsive for maize development and important agronomic traits. Integrating molecular genetics, genomics and phenomics approaches to clone key genes and reveal the regulatory network in maize development.

Our lab focuses on the biogenesis and functionality of plant small RNAs. In the past years, we demonstrated the significant roles of endoplasmic reticulum on the translational inhibition directed by plant microRNAs, identified the distribution pattern of small RNAs on plant endomembrane system, and revealed the biogenesis of secondary small RNA on endoplasmic reticulum.