Yarui Diao

Assistant Professor of Cell Biology

I lead a functional genomics lab and my lab’s research is mainly focused on two areas: 1) developing new functional genomics tools to study genome structure and function; 2) using skeletal muscle regeneration and muscle stem cell as our model system to study gene regulation of tissue regeneration in health and diseases conditions, such as injury, muscular dystrophy, aging, and rhabdomyosarcoma. My research has been supported by Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP), V Foundation for Cancer Research, Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, Kahn program and Translating Duke Health, Glenn Foundation and American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR), Elsa. U Pardee foundation, Cancer Moonshot℠ Research Initiatives and NIH.

Appointments and Affiliations

  • Assistant Professor of Cell Biology
  • Assistant Professor in Pathology
  • Assistant Professor in Orthopaedic Surgery
  • Affiliate of the Duke Regeneration Center
  • Member of the Duke Cancer Institute

Contact Information

Education

  • Ph.D. University of Hong Kong (China), 2011

Research Interests

1. Gene regulation of muscle regeneration.
2. Genomics technology development.
3. Genetic and epigenetic control of rhabdomyosarcoma.

Awards, Honors, and Distinctions

  • Genomic Innovator Awards. NIH/NHGRI. 2020
  • Glenn Foundation for Medical Research and AFAR Junior Faculty Award. American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR). 2019
  • V Scholar Award. The V Foundation For Cancer Research. 2019
  • Whitehead Scholar. Duke University School of Medicine. 2018
  • Human Frontier Science Program Long-Term Fellowship. HFSP. 2014

Courses Taught

  • UPGEN 778E: University Program in Genetics and Genomics Biological Solutions Module V
  • UPGEN 701: Advanced Topics in Genetics and Genomics
  • CMB 710E: Cell & Molecular Biology Module V
  • CMB 710D: Cell & Molecular Biology Module IV
  • CMB 710A: Cell & Molecular Biology Module I
  • CELLBIO 493: Research Independent Study

In the News

Representative Publications

  • Ando, Kazunori, Jianhong Ou, John D. Thompson, John Welsby, Sushant Bangru, Jingwen Shen, Xiaolin Wei, Yarui Diao, and Kenneth D. Poss. “A screen for regeneration-associated silencer regulatory elements in zebrafish.” Dev Cell 59, no. 5 (March 11, 2024): 676-691.e5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.devcel.2024.01.004.
  • Lee, Min Jin, Manel Ben Hammouda, Wanying Miao, Arinze Okafor, Yingai Jin, Huiying Sun, Vaibhav Jain, et al. “UBE2N is essential for maintenance of skin homeostasis and suppression of inflammation.,” December 4, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.12.01.569631.
  • Zheng, Caishang, Yanjun Wei, Peng Zhang, Kangyu Lin, Dandan He, Hongqi Teng, Ganiraju Manyam, et al. “CRISPR-Cas9-based functional interrogation of unconventional translatome reveals human cancer dependency on cryptic non-canonical open reading frames.” Nat Struct Mol Biol 30, no. 12 (December 2023): 1878–92. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41594-023-01117-1.
  • Southerland, Kevin W., Yueyuan Xu, Derek T. Peters, Xin Lin, Xiaolin Wei, Yu Xiang, Kaileen Fei, et al. “Skeletal muscle regeneration failure in ischemic-damaged limbs is associated with pro-inflammatory macrophages and premature differentiation of satellite cells.” Genome Med 15, no. 1 (November 10, 2023): 95. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13073-023-01250-y.
  • Zhao, Shuai, Jiuwei Lu, Bo Pan, Huitao Fan, Stephanie D. Byrum, Chenxi Xu, Arum Kim, et al. “TNRC18 engages H3K9me3 to mediate silencing of endogenous retrotransposons.” Nature 623, no. 7987 (November 2023): 633–42. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06688-z.