Our team

Yicheng obtained his bachelor degree in biological sciences from Tsinghua University in Beijing, and then he joined Jane Jackman's lab at Ohio State to pursue his PhD research on RNA repair and reverse RNA polymerization in Dictyostelium (a social amoeba) and budding yeast. After completion of his PhD study, he joined Tom Cech's lab at University of Colorado Boulder to study how RNA-protein interaction regulates epigenetic repression. Yicheng established his independent research lab at Weill Cornell in August 2021, and he is interested how molecular interactions among RNA, DNA and protein regulate gene expression in cell identity, development and diseases.

Outside the lab Yicheng loves hiking, skiing, tennis, soccer, board games, and exploring new restaurants in New York City. He also love cuddling with his Akita Shepherd dog Summer.

Christian is an ambitious researcher who loves anything from RNA to chromatin to stem cells. For his scientific endeavors, he has traveled the world quite a bit: He graduated from the Technische Universität Dresden in Germany, completed his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology at the EMBL Rome in Italy, and then went on for his postdoc research in Edinburgh, Scotland, and Boulder, Colorado.

Christian joined the lab in October 2021, where he can be seen knocking out lncRNAs and differentiating iPSCs to cardiomyocytes.

Outside the lab, Christian enjoys playing football, table tennis, and billiards. He’s always down for fun events and all kinds of activities in and around town.

Sandy earned her bachelor's degree in Biotechnology in India and then moved to the US to pursue her master's degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. She then went to work in the labs of Dr. Tom Maniatis at Columbia University and Dr. Daniele Canzio at UCSF. In both labs, Sandy studied the molecular regulation of clustered protocadherins in neural cell-surface identity using mouse models. It was during this time that Sandy developed an interest in further exploring research pertaining to RNA regulation within a defined chromatin environment. She then joined the BCMB PhD program in late 2020 and joined our lab in the summer of 2022. 

In her free time, Sandy likes to sketch, read, watch anime, and play chess. 

Liming is a passionate postdoctoral researcher with particular research interests in developing gene editing tools and studying long noncoding RNA functions. Liming had a mixed background in molecular biology, genetics, and pharmacology/toxicology. He earned his B.S. degree at the Ocean University of China with a major in Medicine. He then came to the US to pursue higher education. Majoring in pharmacology/toxicology, he earned his M.S. degree at St.John’s University and his Ph.D. degree at UCONN. After that, he had a two-year postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School, where he found a research interest in gene editing and iPSC differentiation. Liming joined the lab in December 2022, and he will be in charge of developing CRIPSR-based tools in the study of genetic regulation by long noncoding RNAs.

Outside the lab, Liming likes building computers and photographing.  

Jeff Abrams is a cardiology fellow with a research background in ion channels and cardiac arrhythmias; he is returning to the lab for the final years of his fellowship.  He's excited to be a member of the Long lab where he will be studying epigenetic regulators of cardiomyocyte differentiation. 

Jeff previously received his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his MD/PhD at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.  Outside of his time in the hospital and lab, he enjoys spending time with his family and learning new things. 

Abby graduated with a bachelors degree in Biochemistry from California State University, Fullerton where she did research on the role of phosphorylation in the differential splicing activities of RNA-binding proteins PTBP1 and PTBP2. In 2024 she joined the WCM Pharmacology PhD program. In her free time she enjoys reading, crafting, and visiting museums. 

John graduated from Cornell University in May 2021 and joined the lab in Oct 2021. John is in charge of the baculoviral production of recombinant protein complexes and downstream biochemical approaches. Outside the lab, John loves climbing and running.

John is pursuing his PhD in Applied Mathmatics at University of Arizona at the moment.