HAN Dali’ Group was established in September 2017 and its current research interests are mainly about：1) AI & RNA; 2) Cancer epigenetics; 3) bioinformatics & epigenetic therapy. The group consists of 1 professor, 1 senior engineer, 1 assistant researcher, 2 postdoctoral scholars, and 13 graduate students.
Group leader ：HAN Dali
Biography
2024.05—Present, Head of the Department of Computational Biology，China National Center for Bioinformation
2017.09—Present, professor, Beijing Institute of Genomics, CAS
2012.12—2017.08, postdoctoral scholar, University of Chicago
2007.09—2012.07, Ph.D of Bioinformatics, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, CAS
2003.09—2007.07, Bachelor of Science, University of Science and Technology of China
Introduction
Dr. HAN’s research interest is to combine medical biology and bioinformatics to investigate the roles and biological significance of novel nucleic acid modifications in anti-tumor immunity, stem cells & organ regeneration and epigenetic therapy. He has published more than 30 papers in the peer-reviewed journals including Nature, Science, Nature Methods, Cell Research, Molecular Cell, etc. He was elected as the National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars (2019), Member of Millions of Talent Projects National candidates (2020), and granted the Zhong Nanshan Youth Science and Technology Innovation Prize (2021) , “Excellent” in the final review of the CAS Hundred Talents Program (2023) and the State Council Special Government Allowance (2023).
Research Fields
1. Decode dysregulated RNA modifications in the tumor microenvironment, revealing how m⁶A in immune cells controls anti-tumor immunity. METTL14 in macrophages drives CD8+ T cell exhaustion via EBI3 (Cancer Cell, 2021), while YTHDF1 in dendritic cells impairs antigen presentation (Nature, 2019); targeting FTO with Dac51 enhances checkpoint blockade efficacy (Cell Metabolism, 2021).
2. Discover nuclear m⁶A on chromatin-associated RNA(caRNA) directly regulates chromatin accessibility and transcription via YTHDC1-NEXT (Science, 2020), overturning the dogma that RNA modifications act only post-transcriptionally. This RNA epigenetics mechanism reshapes understanding of stem cell fate (Cell Proliferation, 2023; Life Medicine, 2023; SCIENCE CHINA Life Sciences, 2025).
3. Develop multi-omics technologies and AI algorithm for precision oncology—mapping T cell translatomes to identify LARP4 as a therapeutic target (Nature Immunology, 2025), creating RNA modification profiling tools (Nature Methods, 2017; Molecular Cell, 2016), and building clinical machine learning diagnostics (Cell Research, 2018; Advanced Science, 2023).
Selected Publications
# Co-first Authorship * Corresponding Authorship
Selected Publications:
1. Yi Liu#, Haochen Ni#, Jie Li#, Jing Yang, Ivann Sekielyk, Bryan E. Snow, Zihao Zhang, Feifan Zhang, Michael St. Paul, Jinyi Han, Meghan Kates, Shaofeng Liu, Yawei Zhang, Zurui Huang, Yin Xu, Samuel D. Saibil, Tak W. Mak, Dali Han*, Meng Michelle Xu*. LARP4-mediated hypertranslation drives T cell dysfunction in tumors. Nature Immunology, 2025, 26(9):1488-1500
2. Fangle Li#, Feifan Zhang#, Jie Li#, Yu Zhang#, Wenxuan Gong, Yawei Zhang, Mengxia Liu, Jie Ren*, Dali Han*. Dual roles of N6-methyladenosine in R-loop regulation of gene transcription and genome stability. SCIENCE CHINA Life Sciences, 2025,68(11):3190-3202.
3. Guanghao Liang#, Linchen Wang#, Qiancheng You#, Kirk Cahill#, Chuanyuan Chen, Wei Zhang, Noreen Fulton, Wendy Stock, Olatoyosi Odenike*, Chuan He*, Dali Han*. Cellular Composition and 5hmC Signature Predict the Treatment Response of AML Patients to Azacitidine Combined with Chemotherapy. Advanced Science, 2023, 10(23)：2300445.
4. Lihui Dong#, Chuanyuan Chen#, Yawei Zhang#, Peijin Guo, Zhenghang Wang, Jian Li, Yi Liu, Jun Liu, Renbao Chang, Yilin Li, Guanghao Liang, Weiyi Lai, Mengxue Sun, Urszula Dougherty, Marc B. Bissonnette, Hailin Wang, Lin Shen, Meng Michelle Xu* and Dali Han*. The loss of RNA N6-adenosine methyltransferase Mettl14 in tumor-associated macrophages promotes CD8+ T cell dysfunction and tumor growth. Cancer Cell, 2021,39(7):945-957.e10.
5. Yi Liu#, Guanghao Liang#, Hongjiao Xu#, Wenxin Dong#, Ze Dong#, Zhiwei Qiu, Zihao Zhang, Fangle Li, Yue Huang, Yilin Li, Jun Wu, Shenyi Yin, Yawei Zhang, Peijin Guo, Jun Liu, Jianzhong Jeff Xi, Peng Jiang, Dali Han*, Cai-Guang Yang*, Meng Michelle Xu*. Tumors exploit FTO-mediated regulation of glycolytic metabolism to evade immune surveillance. Cell Metabolism, 2021, 33(6):1221-1233.e11.
6. Jun Liu#, Xiaoyang Dou#, Chuanyuan Chen#, Chuan Chen, Chang Liu, Meng Michelle Xu, Siqi Zhao, Bin Shen, Yawei Gao*, Dali Han*, Chuan He*. N6-methyladenosine of chromosome-associated regulatory RNA regulates chromatin state and transcription. Science, 2020, 367(6477):580-586.
7. Dali Han#*, Jun Liu#, Chuanyuan Chen, Lihui Dong, Yi Liu, Renbao Chang, Xiaona Huang, Yuanyuan Liu, Jianying Wang, Urszula Dougherty, Marc B. Bissonnette, Bin Shen, Ralph R. Weichselbaum, Meng Michelle Xu* & Chuan He*. Anti-tumour immunity controlled through mRNA m6A methylation and YTHDF1 in dendritic cells. Nature, 2019, 566(7743): 270-274.(Dedicated feature articles on this work were published in Cancer Discovery, Nature Immunology, and other leading journals.)
8. Dali Han#, Xingyu Lu#, Alan H. Shih#, Ji Nie, Qiancheng You, Meng Michelle Xu, Ari M. Melnick, Ross L. Levine*, and Chuan He*. A Highly Sensitive and Robust Method for Genome-wide 5hmC Profiling of Rare Cell Populations. Molecular Cell, 2016, 63(4): 711-719. (Molecular Cell “Best of 2016” Paper – ranked #1 among all original research articles.)
9. Qing Dai#, Sharon Moshitch-Moshkovitz#, Dali Han#, Nitzan Kol, Ninette Amariglio, Gideon Rechavi, Dan Dominissini* & Chuan He*. Nm-seq maps 2'-O-methylation sites in human mRNA with base precision. Nature Methods, 2017, 14(7):695-698.
10. Bo Xia#, Dali Han#, Xingyu Lu#, Zhaozhu Sun, Ankun Zhou, Qiangzong Yin, Hu Zeng, Menghao Liu, Xiang Jiang, Wei Xie, Chuan He* & Chengqi Yi*. Bisulfite-free, Base-resolution analysis of 5-formylcytosine at the genome scale. Nature Methods, 2015, 12(11):1047-1050.
11. Xingyu Lu#, Dali Han#, Boxuan Simen Zhao#, Chun-Xiao Song, Li-Sheng Zhang, Louis C Dore, Chuan He*. Base-resolution maps of 5-formylcytosine and 5-carboxylcytosine reveal genome-wide DNA demethylation dynamics. Cell Research, 2015, 25(3): 386-389.
12. Ming Su#, Dali Han#, Jerome Boyd-Kirkup, Xiaoming Yu, and Jing-Dong J. Han*. Evolution of Alu Elements toward Enhancers. Cell Reports, 2014, 7(2): 376-385.
Invited Review：
13. Dali Han, Meng Michelle Xu. RNA Modification in the Immune System. Annual Review of Immunology, 2023, 41(1): 73-98.
Other Publications:
2. Chuandong Liu#, Jie Li#, Hua Jin#, Qian Zhao#, Fangle Li, Zurui Huang, Boyuan Mei, Wenxuan Gong*, Xia Wang*, Dali Han*. Colonic stem cell from severe ulcerative colitis maintains environment-independent immune activation by altering chromatin accessibility and global m6A loss. Life Medicine, 2023，2(4): lnad034.
3. Guanshen Cui#, Jia-Yi Zhou#, Xin-Yang Ge#, Bao-Fa Sun#, Ge-Ge Song#, Xing Wang#, Xiu-Zhi Wang, Rui Zhang, Hai-Lin Wang, Qing Jing, Magdalena J. Koziol, Yong-Liang Zhao, An Zeng, Wei-Qi Zhang*, Da-Li Han*, Yun-Gui Yang*, Ying Yang*. m6A promotes planarian regeneration, Cell Proliferation, 2023, 56(5): e13481.
4. Xiao-Yang Jin, Zu-Rui Huang, Li-Jun Xie, Li Liu, Da-Li Han*, Liang Cheng*. Photo-Facilitated Detection and Sequencing of 5-Formylcytidine RNA. Angewandte Chemie-International Edition. 2022 ,61(49): e202210652. doi: 10.1002/anie.202210652.
5. Chi Xu#, Zunhui Ke#, Chuandong Liu#, Zhihao Wang#, Denghui Liu, Lei Zhang, Jingning Wang, Wenjun He, Zhimeng Xu, Yanqing Li, Yanan Yang, Zhaowei Huang, Panjing Lv, Xin Wang, Dali Han*, Yan Li*, Nan Qiao*, and Bing Liu*. Systemic In Silico Screening in Drug Discovery for Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) with an Online Interactive Web Server. Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling，2020，60(12):5735-5745.
6. Junya Peng#, Bao-Fa Sun#, Chuan-Yuan Chen#, Jia-Yi Zhou#, Yu-Sheng Chen#, Hao Chen, Lulu Liu, Dan Huang, Jialin Jiang, Guan-Shen Cui, Ying Yang, Wenze Wang, Dan Guo, Menghua Dai, Junchao Guo, Taiping Zhang, Quan Liao, Yi Liu, Yong-Liang Zhao, Da-Li Han#, Yupei Zhao*, Yun-Gui Yang* and Wenming Wu*. Single-cell RNA-seq highlights intra-tumoral heterogeneity and malignant progression in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Cell Research, 2019，29(9):725-738.
7. Xin Tian#, Baofa Sun#, Chuanyuan Chen#, Chunchun Gao#, Ji Zhang#, Xingyu Lu#, Linchen Wang, Xiangnan Li, Yurong Xing, Ruijuan Liu, Xiao Han, Zheng Qi, Xiaojian Zhang, Chuan He, Dali Han*, Yun-Gui Yang*, and Quancheng Kan*. Circulating tumor DNA 5-hydroxymethylcytosine as a novel diagnostic biomarker for esophageal cancer. Cell Research, 2018, 28(5): 597-600.
8. Tongnian Gu#, Siqi Zhao#, Yishuang Pi, Weizhong Chen, Chuanyuan Chen, Qian Liu, Min Li, Dali Han* and Quanjiang Ji*. Highly efficient base editing in Staphylococcus aureus using an engineered CRISPR RNA-guided cytidine deaminase. Chemical Science, 2018, 9(12): 3248-3253.
9. Yixing Han#, Dali Han#, Zheng Yan, Jerome D. Boyd-Kirkup, Christopher D. Green, Philipp Khaitovich and Jing-Dong J. Han*. Stress-associated H3K4 methylation accumulates during postnatal development and aging of rhesus macaque brain. Aging cell, 2012, 11(6): 1055-1064.
10. Yi Liu#, Dali Han#, Yixing Han#, Zheng Yan, Bin Xie, Jing Li, Nan Qiao, Haiyang Hu, Philipp Khaitovich, Yuan Gao and Jing-Dong J. Han*. Ab initio identification of transcription start sites in the Rhesus macaque genome by histone modification and RNA-Seq. Nucleic Acids Research, 2011, 39(4): 1408-1418.
11. Meng Michelle Xu#, Yang Pu, Dali Han, Yaoyao Shi, Xuezhi Cao, Hua Liang, Xiang Chen, Xiao-Dong Li, Liufu Deng, Zhijian J. Chen, Ralph R. Weichselbaum, and Yang-Xin Fu*. Dendritic cells but not macrophages sense tumor mitochondrial DNA for cross-priming through signal regulatory protein α signaling. Immunity, 2017, 47(2): 363–373.e5.
13. Jianzhao Liu#, Yuanxiang Zhu#, Guan-Zheng Luo#, Xinxia Wang#, Yanan Yue, Xiaona Wang, Xin Zong, Kai Chen, Hang Yin, Ye Fu, Dali Han, Yizhen Wang*, Dahua Chen*, & Chuan He*. Abundant DNA 6mA methylation during early embryogenesis of zebrafish and pig. Nature communications, 2016, 7: 13052.
14. Dan Dominissini # *, Sigrid Nachtergaele# , Sharon Moshitch-Moshkovitz# , Eyal Peer , Nitzan Kol, Moshe Shay Ben-Haim , Qing Dai , Ayelet Di Segni , Mali Salmon-Divon , Wesley C. Clark, Guanqun Zheng , Tao Pan , Oz Solomon , Eran Eyal , Vera Hershkovitz , Dali Han , Louis C. Doré , Ninette Amariglio , Gideon Rechavi* , and Chuan He*. The dynamic N1-methyladenosine methylome in eukaryotic messenger RNA. Nature, 2016, 530(7591): 441-446.
16. Jing Wang# , Cheng Luo# , Changliang Shan# , Qiancheng You# , Junyan Lu , Shannon Elf , Yu Zhou , Yi Wen , Jan L. Vinkenborg , Jun Fan , Heebum Kang , Ruiting Lin , Dali Han , Yuxin Xie, Jason Karpus , Shijie Chen , Shisheng Ouyang , Chihao Luan , Naixia Zhang , Hong Ding, Maarten Merkx , Hong Liu , Jing Chen* , Hualiang Jiang* , and Chuan He*. Inhibition of human copper trafficking by a small molecule significantly attenuates cancer cell proliferation. Nature Chemistry, 2015, 7(12): 968-979.
17. Xiao Wang#, Boxuan Simen Zhao#, Ian A. Roundtree , Zhike Lu , Dali Han , Honghui Ma , Xiaocheng Weng , Kai Chen , Hailing Shi , and Chuan He*. N6-methyladenosine Modulates Messenger RNA Translation Efficiency. Cell, 2015, 161(6): 1388-1399.
18. Ye Fu# , Guanzheng Luo# , Kai Chen , Xin Deng , Miao Yu , Dali Han , Ziyang Hao , Jianzhao Liu , Xingyu Lu , Louis C Doré , Xiaocheng Weng , Quanjiang Ji , Laurens Mets , and Chuan He*. N6-Methyldeoxyadenosine Marks Active Transcription Start Sites in Chlamydomonas. Cell, 2015, 161(4): 879-892.
19. Kai Chen#, Zhike Lu#, Xiao Wang, Ye Fu, Guan-Zheng Luo, Nian Liu, Dali Han, Dan Dominissini, Qing Dai, Tao Pan, and Chuan He*. High-Resolution N6-Methyladenosine (m6A) map using photo-crosslinking-assisted m6A sequencing. Angewandte Chemie International Edition in English, 2015, 54(5): 1587-1590.
20. Jianzhao Liu#, Yanan Yue#, Dali Han, Xiao Wang, Ye Fu, Liang Zhang, Guifang Jia, Miao Yu, Zhike Lu, Xin Deng, Qing Dai, Weizhong Chen, and Chuan He*. A METTL3-METTL14 complex mediates mammalian nuclear RNA N6-adenosine methylation. Nature Chemical Biology, 2014, 10(2): 93-95.
21. Xiao Wang, Zhike Lu, Adrian Gomez, Gary C Hon, Yanan Yue, Dali Han, Ye Fu, Marc Parisien, Qing Dai, Guifang Jia, Bing Ren, Tao Pan, & Chuan He*. N6-methyladenosine-dependent regulation of messenger RNA stability. Nature, 2014, 505(7481): 117-120.
22. Chunyu Jin#, Jing Li#, Christopher D. Green#, Xiaoming Yu, Xia Tang, Dali Han, Bo Xian, Dan Wang, Xinxin Huang, Xiongwen Cao, Zheng Yan, Lei Hou, Jiancheng Liu, Nicholas Shukeir, Philipp Khaitovich, Charlie D. Chen, Hong Zhang, Thomas Jenuwein, and Jing-Dong J. Han*. Histone demethylase UTX-1 regulates C. elegans life span by targeting the insulin/IGF-1 signaling pathway. Cell metabolism, 2011, 14(2): 161-172
Awards and Honors
“Excellent” in the final review of the CAS Hundred Talents Program, 2023
The State Council Special Government Allowance, 2023
Zhong Nanshan Youth Science and Technology Innovation Prize, 2021
Member of Millions of Talent Projects National candidates, 2020
Contact or Others
Our lab is always loking for passionate and talented individuals to drive our research forawrd. We currently have open positions for:
Postdoctoral Fellows
Computer Science or AI Engineers
Co-Principal Investigators(Co-PIs)
Prospective graduate students
If you are interested in exploring the frontiers of RNA biology and cancer immunology, please contact Dr. Han byEmail: handali294@gmail.com / handl@big.ac.cn
Our address: Beichen West Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 104th Floor, Room 518, Zip Code 100101
Know more about HAN Dali’s lab: http://137.220.57.193
