Lin Bai, Principal Investigator

Contact Information

E-mail: lbai@pku.edu.cn

Research Interests

Mechanistic studies of drug targets and structure-based drug discovery.

Personal Profile

Prof. Lin Bai is a Peking University Boya Young Scholar, obtained Ph.D. in 2012 from the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and conducted postdoctoral research at Brookhaven National Laboratory (USA) from 2012 to 2016. He later served as a Senior Research Scientist at the Van Andel Institute (USA) from 2016 to 2020. He has presided over grants including the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) General Program, the Natural Science Foundation of Beijing General Program, and the Science Fund Program for Distinguished Young Scholars of the NSFC (Overseas). As a corresponding author (including co-corresponding author), he has published research papers in international journals including  Nature ,  Nature Communications ,  Science Advances ,  Protein & Cell ,  Cell Reports , and  eLife . His research group primarily focuses on drug target discovery and structure-based drug development, with a particular emphasis on identifying antifungal drug targets and advancing structure-based antifungal drug research.

Education and Professional Experience

2002.9-2006.7: B.S., Lanzhou University

2006.9-2012.8: Ph.D., Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

2012.8-2016.7: Postdoctoral Fellow, Brookhaven National Laboratory, USA

2016.7-2020.8: Senior Research Scientist, Van Andel Institute, USA

2020.9– present: Principal Investigator, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Peking University

Teaching Courses

Undergraduate Courses: "Technology in Medicine", "PBL", "Introduction to AI Analysis of Biomedical Images"

Graduate Courses: "Electron Microscopy Methods in Biomedicine", "Medical Biophysics – Membranes and Biomacromolecules", "Molecular Pharmacology and Drug Discovery Technologies", "Structural Biology Research Techniques", "Literature Reading and Writing", "Biomacromolecular Interactions", "Interdisciplinary Thinking in Vascular Medicine"

Group Members

From left: Lexuan Wang, Zilong You, Yueran Ni, Ruiqing Lyu, Lin Bai (Mentor), Zhaobin Wang, Meng Ji, Lei Sun, Jinyan Jiang, Kunzhao Liu

Funding

1. National Natural Science Foundation of China (General Program), 2022–2025

2. Science Fund Program for Distinguished Young Scholars of the NSFC (Overseas), 2022–2025

3. Natural Science Foundation of Beijing (General Program), 2025–2027

4. National Natural Science Foundation of China (General Program), 2026–2029

Publications（Corresponding author：*；First author：#）

1. You Z#, Ni Y, Song Y, Li H, Liu K, Wang L, Zhao C, Zhao P, Chen D, Wang L, Wang K, Xia P, Gu Y, Yun C, Bai L*. Assembly and cooperative mechanism of the hexameric fungal plasma membrane H+-ATPase.  Cell Reports . 2025 Jun 24;44(6):115753.

2. Zhao C#, You Z, Bai L*. Fungal Plasma Membrane H+-ATPase: Structure, Mechanism, and Drug Discovery.  J Fungi  (Basel). 2024 Apr 8;10(4):273. doi: 10.3390/jof10040273.

3. Zhao C#, You Z#, Chen D#, Hang J#*, Wang Z, Wang L, Zhao P, Qiao J*, Yun C*, Bai L*. Structure of a fungal 1,3-β-glucan synthase.  Sci Adv.  2023 Sep 15;9(37):eadh7820.

4. Chen D#, Wang Z#, Wang L, Zhao P, Yun C*, Bai L*. Structure, catalysis, chitin transport, and selective inhibition of chitin synthase.  Nat Commun.  2023 Aug 8;14(1):4776.

5. Bai L*, Li H*. Structural insights into the membrane chaperones for multi-pass membrane protein biogenesis.  Curr Opin Struct Biol.  2023 Apr;79:102563. doi: 10.1016/j.sbi.2023.102563.

6. Zhao P#, Zhao C#, Chen D, Yun C, Li H*, Bai L*. Structure and activation mechanism of the hexameric plasma membrane H+-ATPase.  Nat Commun.  2021 Nov 8;12(1):6439.

7. Bai L*#, Jain BK#, You Q#, Duan HD, Takar M, Graham TR*, Li H*. Structural basis of the P4B ATPase lipid flippase activity.  Nat Commun.  2021 Oct 13;12(1):5963.

8. Bai L*, Li H*. Cryo-EM structures of the endoplasmic reticulum membrane complex.  FEBS J . 2021 Feb 24. doi: 10.1111/febs.15786.

9. Bai L*, Li H*. Protein N-glycosylation and O-mannosylation are catalyzed by two evolutionarily related GT-C glycosyltransferases.  Curr Opin Struct Biol.  2021 Jan 11;68:66-73.

10. Bai L*#, You Q#, Jain BK#, Duan HD, Kovach A, Graham TR, Li H*. Transport mechanism of P4 ATPase phosphatidylcholine flippases.  Elife.  2020 Dec 15;9:e62163.

11. Bai L*, You Q, Feng X, Kovach A, Li H*. Structure of the ER membrane complex, a transmembrane-domain insertase.  Nature . 2020 Aug;584(7821):475-478.

12. Bai L*, Kovach A, You Q, Hsu HC, Zhao G, Li H*. Atomic structure of the eukaryotic lipid flippase Drs2p-Cdc50p.  Nat Commun . 2019; 10:4142

13. Bai L*, Li H*. Cryo‐EM is uncovering the mechanism of eukaryotic protein N‐glycosylation.  FEBS   J . 2019; 286.9: 1638-1644.

14. Bai L#, Kovach A, You Q, Kenny A, Li H*. Structure of the eukaryotic protein O-mannosyltransferase Pmt1-Pmt2 complex.  Nat Struct Mol Biol . 2019. 26:704-711

15. Bai L#, Wang T, Zhao G, Kovach A, Li H*. The atomic structure of a eukaryotic oligosaccharyl transferase complex.  Nature.  2018; doi:10.1038/nature25755

16. Santos RLA#, Bai L#, Singh PK#, Murakami N#, Fan H, Zhan W, Zhu Y, Jiang X, Zhang K, Assker JP, Nathan CF, Li H*, Azzi J*, Lin G*. Structure of human immunoproteasome with a reversible and noncompetitive inhibitor that selectively inhibits activated lymphocytes.  Nat Commun . 2017. 8(1):1692.

17. Noguchi Y#, Yuan Z#, Bai L#, Schneider S, Zhao G, Stillman B*, Speck C*, Li H*. Cryo-EM structure of Mcm2-7 double hexamer on DNA suggests a lagging-strand DNA extrusion model.  Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A.  2017. 114(45):E9529-E9538.

18. Bai L#, Jastrab JB, Isasa M, Hu K, Yu H, Gygi SP, Darwin KH*, Li H*. Structural Analysis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Homologues of the Eukaryotic Proteasome Assembly Chaperone 2 (PAC2).  J Bacteriol . 2017. 199(9). pii: e00846-16.

19. Yuan Z#, Riera A#, Bai L#, Sun J, Nandi S, Spanos C, Chen ZA, Barbon M, Rappsilber J, Stillman B*, Speck C*, Li H*. Structural basis of Mcm2-7 replicative helicase loading by ORC-Cdc6 and Cdt1.  Nat Struct Mol Biol . 2017. 24(3):316-324.

20. Bai L#, Yuan, Z., Sun, J., Georgescu, R., O’Donnell, ME., Li, H*. Architecture of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Replisome.  DNA Replication. Springer , 2017. 207-228. (book chapter)

21. Georgescu R#, Yuan Z#, Bai L#, de Luna Almeida Santos R, Sun J, Zhang D, Yurieva O, Li H*, O'Donnell ME*. Structure of eukaryotic CMG helicase at a replication fork and implications to replisome architecture and origin initiation.  Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A.  2017. 114(5):E697-E706.

22. Bai L#, Hu K#, Wang T#, Jastrab JB, Darwin KH*, Li H*. Structural analysis of the dodecameric proteasome activator PafE in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.  Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A . 2016. 113(14):E1983-92.

23. Sun Q#, Han C, Liu L, Wang Y, Deng H, Bai L*, Jiang T*. Crystal structure and functional implication of the RUN domain of human NESCA.  Protein Cell . 2012. 3(8):609-17.

24. Tang L#, Bai L#, Wang WH, Jiang T*. Crystal structure of the carnitine transporter and insights into the antiport mechanism.  Nat Struct Mol Biol . 2010. 17(4):492-6.