Ph.D. advisor

Email:marunze@ibms.pumc.edu.cn

Affiliated State Key Laboratories:State Key Laboratory of Common Mechanism Research for Major Diseases.

Personal Profile

In 2014, I graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Cuiying Honors College of Lanzhou University (China’s Top-Notch Undergraduate Training Program), under the supervision of Professor Yi Wu. In 2021, I obtained my Ph.D. from the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, under the supervision of CAS Member Bing Zhu. From 2022 to 2026, I conducted postdoctoral research in Bing Zhu’s laboratory and subsequently served as an Associate Investigator. In 2026, I joined the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, as a Principal Investigator in the Department of Medical Genetics, where I currently hold the positions of tenure-track Assistant Professor and Ph.D. Supervisor.

Technology field and major achievements

The research interests of the laboratory focus on the molecular mechanisms underlying constitutive heterochromatin and their relevance to human diseases. The principal investigator (PI) has published papers as first author (including co-first) or corresponding author (including co-corresponding) in journals such as Nature, Trends in Cell Biology, Science Bulletin, The Innovation Life, and Scientia Sinica (Vitae). The PI is a recipient of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Excellent Young Scientists Fund) and has been supported by the Young Elite Scientists Sponsorship Program of the China Association for Science and Technology. In addition, the PI was recognized as the second honoree of one of the “2024 Top 10 Scientific Advances in Life Sciences of China”.

PUBLICATIONS

1. Ma R*, Zhang Y*, Zhang J, Zhang P, Liu Z, Fan Y, Wang H-T, Zhang Z, Zhu B. Targeting pericentric non-consecutive motifs for heterochromatin initiation. Nature. 2024 Jul;631(8021):678-685. (* Co-first authors)

2. Ma R#, Zhu B#. Pericentromeric sequences, where a conservation paradox occurs. Trends Cell Biol. 2025 Feb; S0962-8924(25)00034-0. (# Co-corresponding authors)

3. Ma R#, Wang H-T, Zhu B#. Evolutionary paradox: Conserved zinc finger proteins target rapidly evolving pericentric sequences. The Innovation Life. 2024 Oct;2(4): 100100. (# Co-corresponding authors)

4. Ma R, Liu Z, Zhu B. The romance of replication: hand in hand, from dawn to dusk. Sci Bull (Beijing). 2024 Jun 24:S2095-9273(24)00453-5.

5. Ma R*,#, Liu T*, Zhu B#. Short simple tandem repeats and tandem repeat disorders, Scientia Sinica (Vitae), 2025, 55(12): 2483-2500. (* Co-first authors, # Co-corresponding authors)

6. Lu JY, Chang L, Li T, Wang T, Yin Y, Zhan G, Han X, Zhang K, Tao Y, Percharde M, Wang L, Peng Q, Yan P, Zhang H, Bi X, Shao W, Hong Y, Wu Z, Ma R, Wang P, Li W, Zhang J, Chang Z, Hou Y, Zhu B, Ramalho-Santos M, Li P, Xie W, Na J, Sun Y, Shen X. Homotypic clustering of L1 and B1/Alu repeats compartmentalizes the 3D genome. Cell Res. 2021 Jun;31(6):613-630.