Wenwei Li
Credentials: Oncology Department
Position title: Virus–Host Interactions; Immune Recognition; Membrane Organization
Email: wenwei.li@wisc.edu
Address:
1111 Highland Ave
Madison, WI 53705
LAB WEBSITE:
FOCUS GROUPS:
Virology; Cancer Biology; Immunology
RESEARCH DESCRIPTION:
My laboratory seeks to decipher how membrane protein organization is established, remodeled, and interpreted during infection and immunity. Rather than focusing on isolated proteins, we focus on membrane-interface recognition events in which proteins anchored in opposing membranes assemble into functional complexes during pathogen entry and immune recognition. These questions have remained difficult to address because membrane interfaces are transient, heterogeneous, and challenging to capture under native conditions. To overcome these challenges, my laboratory has
developed a modular membrane engineering platform based on interacting virus-like particles (VLPs) that reconstructs biologically relevant membrane interfaces. By integrating quantitative structural analysis with cryo-electron microscopy (cryoEM), cryo-electron tomography (cryoET), and correlative in situ cryo-focused ion beam (cryo-FIB), we seek to visualize membrane protein assemblies from near-atomic resolution to their native cellular environment.