NI LAB
NUS Diagnostic Radiology
CURRENT MEMBERS
Principal Investigator
Assistant Professor Ni Qianqian
Member of Italian Chemical Society 2024 - Present
B.Med., Nanjing University (Clinical Medicine)
PhD., Nanjing University (Medical Imaging and Nuclear medicine)
Postdoctoral Fellow, National Institutes of Health (Molecular Imaging and Nanomedicine)
Dr. Ni finished her PhD training at Nanjing University and National Institutes of Health (NIH, USA). After postdoc training from National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB)/NIH, she joined NUS School of Medicine and started her tenure track Assistant Professorship from 2021. Her research over the past five years focused on applying novel nanotechnologies and modification techniques for RNA therapeutics development, which has been published in prestigious journals such as Nat. Rev. Bioeng. (2025), Nat. Nanotechnol. (Accepted, 2025), Adv. Mater. (2024, 2025), Nat. Commun. (2023), Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (2023). Dr. Ni is also leading several scientific projects granted by A*Star, MOE, NMRC, NRF, Singapore (>6 Million), and has been awarded the Rising Talents by Precision Nanomedicine (2024) and Emerging Investigator of Nanoscale (2026).
AWARDS:
Rising Talents of Precision Nanomedicine 2024
Welman’s Award for Doctoral Thesis Excellence 2018
Shi Le Hui Fellowship 2017-2018
National Doctoral Fellowship 2016
NJU Graduate Scholarship 2014
People’s Scholarship 2012-2013
Basic Subject Forum Award 2012
People’s Scholarship 2011-2012
NJU Excellent Teaching Assistant Award 2009-2010
Research Fundings
Current Funding Support
2025-2029, Ni Qianqian, Team PI, Generative AI models for the creation and delivery of mRNA vaccine, NRF AI4S
2025-2028, Ni Qianqian, Lead PI, Lipid nanoparticle platform technology for targeted mRNA delivery, A*Star NATi N05
2025-2028, Ni Qianqian, Lead PI, An improved lipid nanoparticle technology for folded messenger RNA delivery and gene editing, MOE Tier 2
2023-2026, Ni Qianqian, Lead PI, Design of nucleic acid immune agonist delivery platform technology to elicit potent and safe anti-tumor immunity, NMRC YIRG
2024-2025, Ni Qianqian, Lead PI, T cell targeted dendrimer nanoparticles mediate in-vivo mRNA delivery for human CAR-T engineering, Merlion Program 2024
2023-2028, Ni Qianqian, Co-PI, In situ therapeutic nanovaccine for personalized cancer immunotherapy, NMRC IRG
2023-2028, Ni Qianqian, Co-PI, Development of individualized cancer vaccine. NRF Competitive Research Programme
2022-2025, Ni Qianqian, PI, Coordinated mRNA-Mn2+ Nanovaccine for STING-mediated Cancer Immunotherapy, MOE Tier 1
2022-2026, Ni Qianqian, PI, Albumin based nanovaccine to potentiate cancer immunotherapy, NUS Start-up
Completed Research Support
2023-2024, Ni Qianqian, PI, Dimeric albumin binding technology for immunomodulation. Wuxi apptec-nus solitaire initiative
Research Fellow
Li Benhao
Benhao obtained his Bachelor's Degree from Northwest A&F University. Then, he received his PhD. Degree from Fudan University in 2020. His current research focuses on NIR bioimaging biosensing, and gene therapy.
Hu Haijun
Haijun joined Dr. Ni's lab in Jan. 2024, where he works on mRNA vaccine for cancer treatment. Before joining NUS, he was a postdoctoral scholar at Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences from 2021 to 2024. He received the PhD degree from Shanghai Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2020, the M.Sc. degree from Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2015, and the B.Sc. degree from Nanchang University in 2008.
He Xidong
Xidong obtained his Bachelor’s Degree from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 2018. He subsequently got his Ph.D. Degree from Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2024. He joined Dr. Ni’s lab in Jan. 2025, and focus on design of lipid nanoparticle for respiratory mucosal delivery of mRNA vaccines.
Yi Li
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Yi Li received her bachelor’s degree in Pharmaceutical Engineering from Sichuan University in 2020, and her Ph.D. from the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology in 2025. Her research focuses on the design and optimization of nanomedicines, gene drug delivery, and cancer immunotherapy.
Yan Jiayang
Jiayang obtained the bachelor’s degree from Zhejiang University in 2019, and the Ph.D. degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2024. Currently she works as postdoctoral fellow in Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine. She joined Dr. Ni’s lab as visiting research fellow in Dec. 2025 and focuses on exploring novel nucleic acid nanomedicine for pulmonary infection.
Ma Yandong
yandong
Yandong Ma graduated from Jinan university in Guangzhou, where he obtained his master's degree in materials physics and chemistry. Then, he received his Ph.D' degree at chimieparistech of Paris Sciences & Lettres-PSL University in France from 2021 to 2025 and majored in molecular chemistry. He focused on the functional polymer nanoparticles for anticancer treatment by phototherapy during his Ph.D study. In the beginning of 2026, he joined the Dr Ni's lab as postdoc research fellow and worked on developing ionizable lipids for the construction of RNA lipid nanoparticles.
Graduate Student
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Yang Bowei
Bowei graduated from Beijing University of Chemical Technology in 2021 where he obtained his B.Sc. in Material Science. He joined Dr. Ni’s lab as PHD student to study lipid nanoparticles (LNP) synthesis for mRNA delivery and CRISPR-Cas9 delivery for gene editing.
Shi Keming
Keming graduated from National University of Singapore in 2025 where he obtained a B.Sc. in Life Science. He joined Dr. Ni's lab as a PhD student to study lipid nanoparticles (LNP) synthesis and applications in mRNA vaccine delivery.
Fan Bangda
Fan Bangda graduated from Dalian University of Technology in 2024, where he obtained both his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Bioengineering. He joined Dr. Ni’s lab in June 2025 as a research assistant and became a Ph.D. student in January 2026. His research focuses on leveraging circular RNA to develop novel RNA-based therapeutic strategies.
Lim Hsin Thong
Lim Hsin Thong graduated from Zhejiang University with a Bachelor’s degree in Bioengineering. She joined Dr. Ni’s lab in August 2025 as a Capstone Project Master’s student, with a research focus on RNA delivery and gene editing.
Ho Zi Zong
Zi Zong holds a BSc in Life Sciences from NUS and is currently an R&D Manager at Lion TCR Pte Ltd. He joined Dr. Ni’s laboratory in August 2025 as a part-time MSc student to conduct research on the screening and validation of lipid nanoparticle (LNP) formulations predicted by AI models.
Li Zijie
Li Zijie graduated from Shenzhen MSU-BIT University with a Bachelor of Science degree. He joined Ni’s lab as a master student in 2025, focusing on in vivo CAR T cell therapy.
Gu Wenjie
Wenjie is a Master's student in Applied Biomedicine at the NUS. He obtained his B.Sc. with First Class Honours from a joint program between Nanjing Tech University and Technological University Dublin. His research focuses on the combinatorial design of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) for respiratory mucosal mRNA delivery.
Research Assistant
Ong Yen Hui
Yen Hui graduated from University of Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia, where she obtained her B.Sc. (Honours) in Biomedical Science (2014) and M.Sc. in Molecular Biology (2019). Her current work in Dr Ni's lab is focusing on cancer immunology, particularly mRNA nanomedicine-based gene therapy.
Wu Zhaoming
Zhaoming graduated from Shandong University in 2023, where he obtained his B.Sc. in Biological Science. He joined in Dr. Ni's lab as Master Student, focusing on the design and delivery of lipid nanoparticle-mRNA vaccines.
Li Xu
Li Xu graduated from Hunan University in 2024, where he obtained his B.Sc. in Chemistry and M.Sc. in Analytical Chemistry. He joined Dr. Ni’s lab in Nov. 2024, where he works on nanomedicine delivery for cancer immunotherapy.