Dr. Liyun Miao

Most animal life begins with the union of a sperm and an egg. The newly formed zygote develops under precise regulation, undergoing in vivo reprogramming to gain the potential to become any cell type and eventually a whole organism. While we have gained some understanding of this process, many of the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. For example, what are the factors and regulatory networks that orchestrate reprogramming and differentiation? And what happens when these regulators malfunction? Answering these questions not only helps us decode how life begins but also provides critical insights into disease, including cancer. To address them, our lab uses zebrafish as a model organism and integrates advanced genetics, genomics, and imaging approaches. We focus on both Development and Disease aspects.

Sherrard, A., Zhong, L., Hoppe, C., Krishna, S., Youlten, S., Boswell, C.W., Cross, S., Sievers, F.E., Ardestani, G., Sakkas, D., Miao, L., Smith, Z. D., Sozen, B., and Giraldez, A.J. (2026). Lamin A/C directs nucleosome-scale chromatin remodeling to define early lineage segregation in mammals. bioRxiv 2026.2001.2001.696913. Youlten, S.E.*, Miao, L.*, Hoppe, C., Boswell, C.W., Musaev, D., Abdelmessih, M., Olowookere, D., Weiss, L.A., Krishnaswamy, S., Giraldez, A.J., and Tornini, V.A. (2025). In vivo differentiation of embryonic cells devoid of key reprogramming factors. Cell Rep 44, 116498. Boswell, C.W., Hoppe, C., Sherrard, A., Miao, L., Kojima, M.L., Martino, P., Zhao, N., Stasevich, T.J., Nicoli, S., and Giraldez, A.J. (2025). Genetically encoded affinity reagents are a toolkit for vi