Yifen Li

Yifen

Research Scientist

Office: CB443
Email: yifenli [at] ksu.edu
Phone: (785)532-0963

I had my basic science training in Taiwan. After receiving the B.S. degree, I came abroad to the department of chemistry and biochemistry at Arizona State University for graduate education where I studied the light harvesting complexes in photosynthetic bacteria. I worked in the Institute of Molecular Agrobiology at the National University of Singapore, and SETI/ NASA Ames Research Center in California before joining Professor Jun Li’s group in the department of chemistry, Kansas State University.

Research Overview

My research interests are focused on the interdisciplinary studies of biochemistry and nanotechnology, particularly in the development of nano-electronic chips as a platform for kinase profiling. Peptide substrates of enzymes are immobilized on the carbon nanofibers and are integrated into a multiplex nanoelectrode array sensor. The biochemical reaction induces the structural changes and charge transfer, which result in a change in the AC impedance of the nanoelectrode array. This device will provide a rapid detection kinetic profiling and will expedite cancer diagnostics and drug discovery.

Publications

* H. Xie, Y. Li, H. Kagawa, J. D. Trent, K. Mudalige, M. Cotlet, and B. Swanson. “An Intrinsically Fluorescent Recognition Ligand Scaffold Based on Chaperonin Protein and Semiconductor Quantum-Dot Conjugates”, Small (2009), 5, 1036.

* Y. Li, C. D. Paavola, H. Kagawa, S. L. Chan, and J. D. Trent, “Mutant chaperonin proteins: new tools for nanotechnology”, Nanotechnology (2007), 18, 455101.

* Y. Li, J. Li, C. D. Paavola, H. Kagawa, S. L. Chan, and J. D. Trent, “The nano revolution: bottom-up manufacturing with biomolecules”, Proceeding of SPIE (2007), 6589, 65892.

* C. D. Paavola, R. A. McMillan, J. D. Trent, S. L. Chan, K. Mazzarella and Y. Li, “A versatile platform for nanotechnology based on circular permutation of a chaperonin protein”, <em "mso-bidi-font-style:="">Nanotecnology (2006), 17, 1171-1176.

*R. A. McMillan, J. Howard, N, J. Zaluzec, H. Kagawa, R. Mogul, Y. Li, C. D. Paavola, and J. D. Trent, “A self-assembling protein template for constrained synthesis and patterning of nanoparticle arrays”, J. Am. Chem. Soc. (2005), 127, 2800-2801.

* A. N. Melkozernov, J. M. Olson, Y. Li, J. P. Allen and R. P. Blankenship, "Orientation and excitonic interactions of the Fenna-Metthews-Olson Bacteriochlorophyll aprotein in membranes of the green sulfur bacterium <em "mso-bidi-font-style:="">Chlorobium tepidum", Photosynthesis Research (1998), 56, 315-328.

* Y. Li, W. Zhou, R. P. Blankenship and J. P. Allen, "Crystal Structure of the Bacteriochlorophyll <em "mso-bidi-font-style:="">a Protein from Chlorobium tepidum", J. Mol. Bio. (1997), 271, 456-471.