Associate Professor of Biology, Division of Natural and Applied Sciences

Director, Wang-Cai Biochemistry Lab 

Principal Research Scientist, Global Health Research Center

Duke Kunshan University

Brief bio:

Prof. Huang is passionate about pursuing fundamental questions in RNA biology and believes such knowledge can be exploited to create powerful RNA-based biotechnology and therapeutics.

Prof. Huang received his Bachelor of Science degree from the College of Biological Sciences at China Agricultural University in Beijing. After graduation in 2003, he did a short academic visit at Centre for Ecology and Hydrology-Oxford in UK before pursuing his PhD with Prof. Sir David Baulcombe at the Sainsbury Laboratory, John Innes Centre in UK. He obtained his PhD which was registered at University of East Anglia in 2009. He then did his postdoctoral training with Prof. Judy Lieberman at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in USA. He joined the Department of Biomedical Sciencesat, City University of Hong, as an Assistant Professor in Aug 2014 and was promoted to Associate Professor (tenured)in 2020.

Prof. Huang joined Duke Kunshan Unversity as an Associate Professor of Biology (tenured) in Aug 2020.

Dr. Huang has published papers in leading scientific journals including Nature Biotechnology, Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Science Advances, mBio, etc. His research is supported by grants from NSFC and major funding schemes of Hong Kong SAR, Shenzhen, and Kunshan. He received Kunshan Innovation Talent award (2021), Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Students Abroad (2008), and Harvard Chinese Life Science Annual Distinguished Research Award (2014). He is the founder of Xiaomo Biotech at Hong Kong Science Park, which has won a Gold Medal at the 47th Geneva International Exhibition of Inventions (2022).

In 2018, Prof. Huang founded Xiaomo Biotech at Hong Kong Science Park: www.xiaomobio.com

Prof. Huang's research interest: research page

Prof. Huang's publications: publication page

Education and work experience:

2021.1-present Principal Research Scientist, Global Health Research Center, Duke Kunshan University, Kunshan, China
2020.8-present Associate Professor of Biology (tenured), Division of Natural and Applied Sciences, Duke Kunshan University, Kunshan, China
2020.10-2021.6 Visiting Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
2020.7-2020.8 Associate Professor (tenured), Department of Biomedical Sciences, Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
2014.8-2020.6 Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
2009.6-2014.7 Research Fellow, Prof. Judy Lieberman Laboratory, Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital & Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA
2008.1-2008.12 Visiting Student, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
2003.11-2004.9 Visiting Researcher, Dr. Hui Wang Laboratory, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology-Oxford, Oxford, UK
2004.10-2008.12 Ph.D. Biological Sciences, Supervisor: Prof. Sir David Baulcombe, The Sainsbury Laboratory, John Innes Centre, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
1999.9-2003.7 B.Sc. Biological Sciences, College of Biological Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China

Awards & Fellowships:

2022 Gold Medal at the 47th Geneva International Exhibition of Inventions
2021 Kunshan Innovation Talent Award
2014 Harvard Chinese Life Science Annual Distinguished Research Award
2011-12 GSK-IDI Alliance Fellowship
2008 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Students Abroad
2008 Keystone Symposia Scholarship
2007 UK-Japan Collaboration Development Award, British Embassy in Japan
2005-08 Overseas Research Students Award, Universities UK
2004-06 Marie Curie Early Stage Training Fellowship, European Union
2004-08 John Innes Centre/The Sainsbury Laboratory 4-year rotation PhD studentship

Teaching:

Current at Duke Kunshan University
BIOL 212 Microbiology
BIOL 304 Molecular Genetic Analysis
BIOL 201 Cell and Molecular Biology

Past at City University of Hong Kong:
BMS3004 Advanced Medical Microbiology
BMS2001 Medical Microbiology
BMS2003 Biochemistry
BMS8111 Immunology and Infectious Diseases
BMS8102 Frontiers in Biomedical Sciences
BMS8105 Biotherapy & Nanomedicine
BMS4102 Technology for Regenerative Medicine
BCH4018 Microbial Physiology

Teaching study project:
The power of textbook: an experiment on studying the impact of possessing a hardcopy of textbook in class

Patent:

1. ‘Method of treating clostridium difficile infection or its associated symptoms’ Linfeng Huang, Yung-fu Chang, Yingxue Li, Yutian Ren, & Wei Xu US patent: 11,318,154, Aug 2019.
2. ‘Small-interfering RNA expression systems for production of small-interfering RNAs and their use’ Linfeng Huang, Yutian Ren, Hung-chi Cheung, & Guneet Kaur US patent: 11,193,124; PRC patent pending: 201711122069.1, Nov 2016.
3. ‘Methods and compositions for the production of siRNAs’ Judy Lieberman & Linfeng Huang US patent: 9,840,703, Jan 2013.
4. ‘Method of Determining Target Nucleic Acid’ Peng Shi, Zixun Wang, Wenjun Zhang, Linfeng Huang, & Xin Wang US patent: US11,634,769, Jan 2018.