Xuping Li

My brief training at Lombroso’s lab was a valuable experience. During this period, I was engaged in 2 projects. (1) Screening a small compound library by high throughput enzyme-based in vitro assay, with the aim to identify selective STEP inhibitors, and (2) Study protein-protein interactions between STEP and its substrates, including the C-termini of NR2A, NR2B, NR1 and GluR1, by using classical immunoprecipitations and a Luciferase-based Protein Complementary Assay in mammalian cells.

Professor Lombroso was an excellent supervisor with enthusiasm for the translational research program in the lab. He helped teach me not only how to study a novel protein with unknown functions but the importance of our work for clinical disorder, which has been extremely helpful for my career development. Although I am no longer in New Haven, each time I pass a Pizza Hut, or see the sign “WATCH YOUR STEP” on a campus shuttle, Paul and my friends at SHM-I come back to my memory. Then I realize that the STEP in my hippocampus still works normally and feel relieved.