My research interest is to understand how pathogenic and commensal bacteria control their gene expression to colonize the host and cause disease, especially the gene regulations at the post-transcriptional level mediated by RNA-binding proteins and small noncoding RNAs (sRNAs). Using high-throughput sequencing and systems-biology approaches, I have identified a novel class of sRNAs that are derived from the 3′-UTR of bacterial mRNAs (see Chao et al, 2012, 2016, 2017; Wang et al, 2020). My lab continues to investigate the general mechanisms dictating the fate of cellular RNAs from transcription to translation, to regulation and degradation. We are also exploring the RNA-RNA interactome at the systems-level in live bacterial cells using the newly established LiRIP-seq approach (Liu et al, manuscript under revision).