Rising Stars: Bioinformatics of Post-translational Modifications

Yu Xue is a professor in the College of Life Science and Technology at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and hold a joint position in the Hubei Hongshan Laboratory at Huazhong Agricultural University. He received two B.E. degrees in polymer science and technology and computer science from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 2002, and a Ph.D. degree in cell biology from USTC in 2006. His major research interest is the computational analysis of post-translational modifications (PTMs) in proteins, a field he terms PTM bioinformatics. Since 2004, his group has developed a number of algorithms, including the Group-based Prediction System (GPS), for prediction of PTM sites and their functional relevance. They have also constructed several PTM-related databases and designed methods to analyze PTMomic data and infer key regulatory enzymes. Through extensive collaboration and their own experimental work, they have predicted and uncovered new PTM sites and regulators in dynamic biological processes. He served as a co-founder and secretary general of the Artificial Intelligence Biology (AIBIO) Sub-branch of the Biophysical Society of China. In 2023, he proposed the concept of "vit-molecular language", drawing an analogy between PTM regulation and human natural languages. He anticipates that cutting-edge AI technology, combined with conventional bioinformatics and experimental approaches, will profoundly empower future PTM studies.