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Assistant Professor
Environmental Health Sciences
233 Parker Food Science and Technology Building
2015 Fyffe Road
Columbus, OH 43210
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Phone: (614) 688-5728
Ph.D., Molecular Virology and Immunology, Zhejiang University, P. R. China, 2002
D.V.M., College of Animal Science, Zhejiang University, P. R. China, 1997
Jianrong Li, D.V.M., Ph.D., joined the College’s Division of Environmental Health Sciences in May 2008. He was recruited as part of the research initiative on Public Health Preparedness for Infectious Diseases and has a joint appointment with the Department of Food Science and Technology. Dr. Li’s laboratory seeks to understand molecular biology of food and waterborne viruses (e.g. Norovirus) and public health related viruses (e.g. Paramyxovirus) and to facilitate the rational design of new vaccines and anti-viral agents with the ultimate goal of improving food safety and public health.
Rapid detection of viruses from food and water;
Inactivation of food and waterborne viruses under non-thermal processing conditions;
Development of vaccines and anti-viral drugs against food and waterborne viruses;
Paramyxovirus replication and gene expression;
Messenger RNA processing in paramyxovirus;
Functions of paramyxovirus RNA dependent RNA polymerase;
Development of vaccines and anti-viral drugs against paramyxovirus.
Jianrong Li*, Amal Rahmeh*, Marco Morelli, Sean P. J. Whelan. A conserved motif in large RNA dependent RNA polymerase of non-segmented negative-sense RNA viruses essential for mRNA cap formation. Journal of Virology, 2008, 82(2): 775-784. (*co-first author)
Jianrong Li*, John S. Chorba*, Sean P. J. Whelan. Vesicular stomatitis viruses resistant to the methylase inhibitor sinefungin upregulate RNA synthesis and reveal mutations that affect mRNA cap methylation. Journal of Virology, 2007, 81(8):4104-4115. (*co-first author)
Jianrong Li, Jennifer Wang, Sean P. J. Whelan. A unique strategy for mRNA cap methylation used by vesicular stomatitis virus. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA. 2006, 103(22): 8493-8498. (This paper was highlighted as Research Focus, Harvard Medical School, June 2006). http://focus.hms.harvard.edu/2006/062306/research_briefs.shtml