Lingjun Li Research Group

Multiplexed Data-Independent Acquisition-Based Proteomics Enabled by TMTpro Complementary Ions Data-independent acquisition (DIA) has emerged as a powerful approach in quantitative proteomics, offering more comprehensive and reproducible proteome coverage than the conventional data-dependent ac...

New publication on Anal Chem 🥳🥳 Our new 3-plex TMTproC-DIA strategy delivers accurate multiplexed quantification, high precision even in complex sample backgrounds without adding spectral complexity. Congrats to Zicong, @pk-liu.bsky.social, and Haiyan 👏👏
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Congratulations to Graham (Jiahao) on successfully passing his prelim exam with flying colors 🥳🥳  Can't wait to see what he can accomplish with this exciting project in the coming years 🤓🤓

Li Lab Friendsgiving Party ✨
A night filled with gratitude, homemade goodness, endless laughs, and the best lab family we could ask for 🍽️🧡
Sending our warmest congratulations to Dr. Hua Zhang as he embarks on his exciting new professorship journey 🥳🥳🥳

Single-cell mass spectrometry imaging: emerging advancements and future insights Single-cell mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) has emerged as a transformative technology for dissecting complex biological systems with high spatial pre…

Our new review paper on ACA Special Issue of Imaging Mass Spec 🥳🥳 We highlight recent advances in single-cell MSI, focusing on improved spatial resolution, molecular coverage, and analytical workflows. Congrats to Hua and co-authors 👏👏
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Costumes, candy, and chemistry 🧪🎃 Li lab turned spooky for a day 👻

Global spinal cord peptidome profiling in response to osteoarthritis in rats Osteoarthritis (OA) is a complex and increasingly prevalent condition, affecting an estimated 600 million people worldwide and significantly reducing quality of life. Understanding OA as both an infla...

New publication on @molecularomics.rsc.org 🥳Our work revealed how osteoarthritis reshapes the neuropeptide landscape of the spinal cord in the MIRAT model. This is a nice collaboration with Prof. Eric Troncy Lab, and congrats to Gaoyuan, Marilyn and all co-authors 👏
pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

A group of Kellett Awardees

School of Pharmacy Dean Steve Swanson and Professor Lingjun Li

Congratulations to Prof. Lingjun Li (@liresearch.bsky.social) on earning a @uwmadison.bsky.social Kellett Mid-Career Award to support her "high risk, high reward" work in single-cell analysis & #massspectrometry, geared to understand tumors & neuron communication! pharmacy.wisc.edu/2025/09/10/p...

Fall tradition continues 🍂🍁 The Li Lab returned to Eugster’s Farm for another day of apple picking, pumpkin hunting, and apple cider donut 🍎🎃🍩 Grateful for great weather and great company with our rotation students 🥳🥳

Increased expression of ATase1/NAT8B or ATase2/NAT8 in the mouse results in an autistic-like phenotype with altered dendritic branching and spine formation - Molecular Psychiatry Molecular Psychiatry - Increased expression of ATase1/NAT8B or ATase2/NAT8 in the mouse results in an autistic-like phenotype with altered dendritic branching and spine formation

🚨 A new study from Professor Lingjun Li @liresearch.bsky.social and collaborators in the Molecular Psychiatry journal finds that changes in an enzyme that helps #neurons function properly can alter synaptic function and drive #autism-like behaviors in a model.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Jeopardy night, round 3 🎉 Another year of laughter, surprises, and impressive fun facts from our lab crew 😆 Always a highlight seeing everyone’s hidden talents (and competitive side) ✨ Shoutout to Lauren, Jacey, and Kelly for organizing all the fun 👏

13-Plex DeAla Isobaric Reagents for High-Throughput Proteome Quantification Isobaric labeling techniques are widely used in mass spectrometry-based quantitative proteomics to enable the simultaneous analysis of multiple samples. However, commercial isobaric tags are expensive...

Excited to share our latest work on Analytical Chemistry, introducing a novel 13-plex DeAla isobaric tag for improved peptide fragmentation, enhanced protein identification, and competitive pricing 🥳🥳🥳 Congrats to @pk-liu.bsky.social and co-authors ✨✨

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Deciphering the Three-Dimensional Biomolecular Distribution in the Alzheimer’s Disease Brain: A Multiomic Approach Integrating Immunohistochemistry with MALDI MS Imaging Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized by complex and distinct spatial and molecular changes in the brain that contribute to its onset and progress…

New publication on Analytica Chimica Acta 🥳🥳 We presented 3D spatial proteomic and lipidomic analysis of AD and WT mouse brains via 10-plex immunohistochemistry (IHC)-based photocleavable mass tag (PC-MT) labeling. Congrats Kelly and co-authors 👏👏
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Celebrating the successful 3rd International Single Cell Mass Spec conference in Chicago last weekend🥳 Congrats to Kelly for winning Best Poster Award and Hua for Young Investigator Award in the category of best advancement award recognizing his scientific accomplishments👏

New research published on Nature @molpsychiatry 🥳🥳 Neuron-specific overexpression of ATase1/ATase2 in mice leads to autistic-like behaviors via ER acetylation pathway disruptions. Congrats Haiyan and a nice collab with Luigi Puglielli Lab
Link 👇👇
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Congratulations to Zach, our @uwmadpharmacy.bsky.social student, on successfully passing the prelim exam and officially becoming a Ph.D. Candidate 🥳🥳🥳 We can't wait to hear about your exciting research in the near future 👏👏👏

Big congrats to David 🥳 🥳 our highly motivated high school summer intern, on successfully presenting his research at the 29th Annual High School Research Poster Session 👏👏

Check out this latest paper in the special issue #Biomolecules Molecular Effects of Environmental Pollutants on Health of Human,Animals and Plants 🥳 🥳We use iDiLeu to quantify metabolite changes upon copper exposure! Congrats to Olga 😃😃
Link below 👇👇
www.mdpi.com/2218-273X/15...

We're thrilled to celebrate Dr. Zhang, the 72nd Ph.D. from the Li Lab 🥳🥳🥳 Wishing you success and happiness in all your future endeavors 😃

Cheers for our very own @chemistlauren.bsky.social for rocking her presentation at the Student Innovators in Analytical Chemistry Symposium hosted by @elilillyandcompany.bsky.social 🥳🥳 This event celebrates her 2024 Analytical Graduate Fellowship, generously funded by Lilly - Way to shine, Lauren!

Enhancing Lipidomics With High‐Resolution Ion Mobility‐Mass Spectrometry Lipids, indispensable yet structurally intricate biomolecules, serve as critical regulators of cellular function and disease progression. Conventional lipidomics, constrained by limited resolution fo....

Check out our latest review on #Proteomics, exploring the application of ion mobility soectrometry (IMS) for lipidomics analysis 🥳🥳🥳 Congrats to Gaoyuan, Shuling, and Timo 👏👏
Read more 👇👇
analyticalsciencejournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

The Li Lab had so much fun at the 2025 Chicago Mass Spec Day today 🥳🥳🥳 Congratulations to Julia for receiving the Enrichment Award and thank you to organizers and sponsors for your generosity and hospitality!

Boosting Quantification of N-Glycans by an Enhanced Isobaric Multiplex Reagents for Carbonyl-Containing Compound (SUGAR) Tagging Strategy Glycans are complex molecules composed of various monosaccharides and exhibit diverse, branched polymer structures. Extensive research has been conducted on mass spectrometry (MS)-based qualitative and quantitative glycan analysis due to their critical biological functions. However, traditional data-dependent acquisition (DDA) in MS analysis primarily selects a limited subset of abundant ions during MS1 scans for fragmentation in subsequent MS2 stages. In this study, we introduce an advanced isobaric labeling strategy that incorporates a large amount of content-relevant sample labeled with one isobaric tag channel as an additional boosting channel. This innovation enhances the efficiency of isobaric multiplex reagents for carbonyl-containing compound (SUGAR) tagging in quantitative glycomics. Notably, this approach significantly improves the characterization of low-abundance N-glycans and enables the detection of subtle quantitative differences in N-glycan profiling.

New strategy in quantitative #glycomics 🥳🥳 Using a boosting channel with SUGAR tagging to uncover subtle changes of low-abundance N-glycans! Congrats to Jingwei and co-authors on this new paper on #JASMS @asms.org 👏👏👏
Read here: pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

Li Lab spent a fun summer Sunday night with a cozy fire pit hangout at Picnic Point🔥 Delicious s’mores, sausages, snacks and furry friends🌽🍫🧀 🐶The highlight? A surprise birthday celebration for our amazing PI🎂🎉 Thank you for always supporting us in everything we do💜

UW–Madison scientists are pushing the boundaries of mass spectrometry and molecular imaging Their newest game-changing discovery has potential in areas like cancer research and pollution management.

Check out this interview by @uwmadpharmacy.bsky.social, featuring our recent work on TEMI, where we're pushing the boundaries of MSI and spatially resolved omics 🥳🥳 Congrats to Hua and coauthors!

Read here: news.wisc.edu/uw-madison-s...

Excited to share our latest review on #MCP, highlighting recent and emerging MS advancements for investigating post-translational modifications in Alzheimer’s disease 🥳🥳 Congrats to Feixuan, Wilson, and Haiyan 🎉🎉
Link: doi.org/10.1016/j.mc...

Huge congratulations to Li Lab Ph.D.s #70 and #71 — Dr. Wenxin Wu and Dr. Zicong Wang 🥳🥳🥳 Your dedication, brilliance, and mentorship have left an unforgettable mark on the lab. Wishing you both all the best in your next chapters 🌟🥂🍰🍕

Check out our latest review, featuring recent advances in chemical labeling strategies, including activity-based protein profiling (ABPP), proximity labeling (PL), and proteolysis-targeting chimeras (PROTACs) 🥳🥳🥳 Congrats @pk-liu.bsky.social and Zicong 🎉🎉
Link: doi.org/10.1016/j.cb...

Congrats to Feixuan and co-authors for having their work featured on the cover of MCP May 2025 Issue 🥳🥳 Special thanks to @uwmadpharmacy.bsky.social Sally Griffith-Oh for drawing this beautiful cover 🎨🎨 Check out their paper here: doi.org/10.1016/j.mc...

Quantitative neuropeptide analysis by mass spectrometry: advancing methodologies for biological discovery Neuropeptides are critical endogenous signaling molecules involved in a wide range of biological processes, including neurotransmission, hormonal regulation, immune responses, and stress management. D...

Check out our latest review on @rsc.org Chem Bio, featuring quantitative MS-based strategies for neuropeptide analysis and highlights their applications on revealing neuropeptide roles in biological systems 🤓 Congrats to Angel, Wenxin and Haoran 🥳
pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

Unlocking Cocaine’s Grip on the Brain - School of Pharmacy Professor Lingjun Li and lab members reveal the crucial role of neuropeptides in cocaine addiction, paving the way for novel therapies.

Why is cocaine so addictive? A new study from Professor Lingjun Li (@liresearch.bsky.social) reveals that it’s not just about dopamine — neuropeptides across the brain play a key role.

These insights could lead to better addiction treatments. Learn how: pharmacy.wisc.edu/2025/03/22/u...