Publications and Preprints

Please do not hesitate to contact us for copies of publications!

Gao, H.; Tennakoon, R.; Araújo, F. P.; Miller, J. M.; Nyandwi, S. P.; Shi, Q.; Padilla-Martínez, J. P.; Peng, H.; Cui, H. A Disease-Causing Isoleucyl-tRNA Synthetase Variant Leads to Altered Protein Complex Formation and Cellular Stress Response. J Biol Chem 2026, 111196. 

Affe, V.; Lei, Q.; Veth, T. S.; Sutherland, E.; Choksi, H.; Izzati, F. N.; Shi, Q.; Cui, H.; Riley, N. M.; Edgar, L. J. Sialoglycans on Human T Cells Attenuate Death Programs Executed through the Fas Pathway. J. Biol. Chem. 2025, 111047 

Shi, Q.; Lauder, C.; Miller, J. M.; Wang, Y.-D.; Elsakrmy, N.; Volkanoska, S.; Freibaum, B. D.; Peng, H.; Kim, H. J.; Taylor, J. P.; Cui, H. A Point Mutation in the Nuclear Speckle Protein and Splicing Factor SRRM2 Is Associated with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Causes Dysregulation of Synapse-Associated Genes. bioRxiv September 12, 2025, p 2025.09.11.675713. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.09.11.675713

Nyandwi, S. P.; Tennakoon, R.; Shi, Q.; Volkanoska, S.; Harkins, D.; Gao, H.; Bu, Y.; Macarios, C. M.; Yuzwa, S. A.; Cui, H. RARS1 Integration into the Multisynthetase Complex Is Crucial for Mammalian Brain Development. bioRxiv September 9, 2025, p 2025.09.08.674979. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.09.08.674979 

Zak, J.; Newman, I.; Garcia, D. J. M.; Parisi, D.; Joy, J.; Head, S. R.; Ducom, J.-C.; Natarajan, P.; Cui, H.; Ul-Hasan, S. Catalyzing Computational Biology Research at an Academic Institute through an Interest Network. PLOS Computational Biology 2025, 21 (9), e1013453. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1013453.

Izzati, F. N.*; Choksi, H.*; Giuliana, P.; Abd-Rabbo, D.; Elsaesser, H.; Blundell, A.; Affe, V.; Kannen, V.; Jame-Chenarboo, Z.; Schmidt, E. N.; Kuypers, M.; Avila, D. B.; Chiu, E. S. Y.; Badmaev, D.; Cui, H.; Matthews, J.; Mallevaey, T.; Macauley, M. S.; Brooks, D. G.; Edgar, L. J. Presentation of Immunoregulatory Sialoglycans on T Cells Is Divergent between Mice and Humans. Cell Rep 2025, 44 (7), 115933. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2025.115933

Healy, L.* , Seto, B.Y.*, Cui H., Li, B.  Non-viral mRNA delivery to the lungs Biomater Sci. 2025 May 27;13(11):2871-2882. doi: 10.1039/d5bm00322a.

Teng , M., Guo, J. , Xu X., Ci, X., Mo Y., Kohen Y.,  Ni Z., Chen S., Guo W.Y., Bakht M., Ku S., Sigouros M., Luo W., Macarios C.M., Xia Z., Chen M., Haq S.U., Yang W., Berlin A., van der Kwast, T., Ellis L., Zoubeidi A., Zheng G., Ming J., Wang, J., Cui H., Lok B.H., Raught B., Beltran, H., Qin, J., He, H.H. Circular RMST cooperates with lineage-driving transcription factors to govern neuroendocrine transdifferentiation. Cancer Cell. 2025 May 12;43(5):891-904.e10. doi: 10.1016/j.ccell.2025.03.027

Bu, Y.B., Tijaro-Bulla, S., Cui, H., Nitz, M. Oxidation-Controlled, Strain-Promoted Tellurophene-Alkyne Cycloaddition (OSTAC): A Bioorthogonal Tellurophene-Dependent Conjugation Reaction.  J Am Chem Soc. 2024 25;146(38):26161-26177. doi: 10.1021/jacs.4c07275.

Tennakoon, R., Cui, H. Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases.  Curr Biol . 2024 Oct 7;34(19):R884-R888. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.08.029.

Douglas, J., Cui, H., Perona, J.J., Vargas-Rodriguez, O., Tyynismaa, H., Carreño, C.A., Ling, J., Ribas-de-Pouplana, L., Yang, X-L., Ibba, M., Becker, H., Fischer, F., Sissler, M., Carter Jr, C.W., Wills., P.R. 2024, AARS Online: a collaborative database on the structure, function, and evolution of the aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases.  IUBMB Life. 2024 Sep 9. doi: 10.1002/iub.2911

Cui, H., Shi, Q*., Macarios, C.M*., and Schimmel, P., 2024, Metabolic regulation of mRNA splicing. Trends Cell Biol, S0962-8924(24)00025-4. Cover

Tijaro-Bulla, S.*, Nyandwi, S.P.*, Cui, H., 2023, Physiological and engineered tRNA aminoacylation, Wiley Interdiscip Rev RNA, e1789.

Elsakrmy, N., Cui, H., 2023, R-Loops and R-Loop-Binding Proteins in Cancer Progression and Drug Resistance, Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(8), 7064

Sun, L., Zhou, X.-L., Zhou, Z.-W., and Cui, H. (2023). Editorial: Noncanonical functions of Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases. Front Physiol 14, 1165515.



Haissi before joining U of Toronto:

As co-corresponding author:
Liu, Z.*, Wang, J.*, Shi, Y., Yee, B.A., Terrey, M., Zhang, Q., Lee, J.C., Lin, K.I., Wang, AHC., Ackerman, S.L., Yeo, G.W., Cui, H., Yang, X-L. Seryl-tRNA synthetase promotes translational readthrough by mRNA binding and involvement of the selenocysteine incorporation machinery. Nucleic Acids Res . 2023 Sep 22;gkad773

As first author:  
Postdoc at Scripps Research
Cui, H., Diedrich, J.K., Wu, D.C., Lim, J.J., Nottingham, R.M., Moresco, J.J., Yates, J.R., Blencowe B.J., Lambowitz, A.M., Schimmel, P., 2023, Arg-tRNA synthetase links inflammatory metabolism to RNA splicing and nuclear trafficking via SRRM2, Nat Cell Biol, 25(4):592-603.
BioRxiv
News and Views

Cui, H., Kapur, M., Diedrich, J.K., Yates III, J.R., Ackerman, S.L., Schimmel, P., 2021. Regulation of Ex-Translational Activities Is the Primary Function of the Multi-tRNA Synthetase Complex, Nucleic Acid Research 49(7), 3603-3616. Breakthrough Article (best 2-3% of articles).
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Scripps Research Press Release
HFSP news and events

Postdoc at Technical University Munich 
Cui, H.*, Baur, R.*, Le Chapelain, C., Dubiella, C., Heinemeyer, W., Huber, E.M., Groll, M., 2017. Structural Elucidation of a Nonpeptidic Inhibitor Specific for the Human Immunoproteasome. ChemBioChem 18, 523–526. 

Dubiella, C.*, Cui, H.*, Groll, M., 2016. Tunable Probes with Direct Fluorescence Signals for the Constitutive and Immunoproteasome. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 55, 13330–13334.

Beck, P.*, Cui, H.*, Hegemann, J.D., Marahiel, M.A., Krüger, A., Groll, M., 2015. Targeted Delivery of Proteasome Inhibitors to Somatostatin-Receptor-Expressing Cancer Cells by Octreotide Conjugation. ChemMedChem 10, 1969–1973.
Inside cover

PhD at MRI TUM
Cui, H., Seubert, B., Stahl, E., Dietz, H., Reuning, U., Moreno-Leon, L., Ilie, M., Hofman, P., Nagase, H., Mari, B., Krüger, A., 2015. Tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-1 induces a pro-tumourigenic increase of miR-210 in lung adenocarcinoma cells and their exosomes. Oncogene 34, 3640–3650. 

Seubert, B.*, Cui, H.*, Simonavicius, N., Honert, K., Schäfer, S., Reuning, U., Heikenwalder, M., Mari, B., Krüger, A., 2015. Tetraspanin CD63 acts as a pro-metastatic factor via β-catenin stabilization. International Journal of Cancer 136, 2304–2315.
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Seubert, B.*, Grünwald, B.*, Kobuch, J.*, Cui, H.*, Schelter, F., Schaten, S., Siveke, J.T., Lim, N.H., Nagase, H., Simonavicius, N., Heikenwalder, M., Reinheckel, T., Sleeman, J.P., Janssen, K.-P., Knolle, P.A., Krüger, A., 2015. Tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases (TIMP)-1 creates a premetastatic niche in the liver through SDF-1/CXCR4-dependent neutrophil recruitment in mice. Hepatology. Md 61, 238–248. 

Cui, H.*, Grosso, S.*, Schelter, F., Mari, B.*, Krüger, A.*, 2012. On the Pro-Metastatic Stress Response to Cancer Therapies: Evidence for a Positive Co-Operation between TIMP-1, HIF-1α, and miR-210. Frontiers in Pharmacology 3, 134. Review 

As contributing author

Postdoc at Scripps Research:
Jones, J.A., Wei, N., Cui, H., Shi, Y., Fu, G, Rauniyar, N., Shapiro, R., Morodomi, Y., Berenst, N., Dumitru, C.D., Kanaji, S., Yates, J.R., Kanaji, T., Yang, X.L., 2023. Nuclear translocation of an aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase may mediate a chronic “integrated stress response”. Cell Rep. 2023 Jun 13;42(6):112632

Istvan E.S., Guerra F., Abraham M., Huang K-S., Rocamora F.,  Zhao H.,  Xu L., Pasaje C., Kumpornsin K., Luth M.R., Cui H., Yang T, Diaz S.P., Gomez-Lorenzo M.G., Qahash T., Mittal N., Ottilie S., Niles J., Lee M.C.S, Llinas M., Kato N., Okombo J., Fidock D.A., Schimmel P., Gamo F.J., Goldberg D.E., Elizabeth A Winzeler, E.A., 2023. Cytoplasmic isoleucyl tRNA synthetase as an attractive multistage antimalarial drug target. Sci Transl Med, 15(686):eadc9249

Feng, Y., Tang, K., Lai, Q., Liang, J., Feng, M., Zhou, ZW., Cui, H., Du, X., Zhang, H., Sun, L., 2022. The Landscape of Aminoacyl-tRNA Synthetases Involved in Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infection. Front Physiol, eCollection 2021.

Wang, J.*, Vallee, I.*, Dutta, A., Wang, Y., Mo, Z., Liu, Z., Cui, H., Su, A.I., Yang X.L., 2020. Multi-omics analyses of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases in cancer. Genes 11, 1384 .

Postdoc at Technical University of Munich: 
Dall, E., Hollerweger, J.C., Dahms, S.O., Cui, H., Häussermann, K., Brandstetter, H., 2018. Structural and functional analysis of cystatin E reveals enzymologically relevant dimer and amyloid fibril states. The Journal of Biological Chemistry 293, 13151–13165. 

Dubiella, C., Baur, R., Cui, H., Huber, E.M., Groll, M., 2015. Selective Inhibition of the Immunoproteasome by Structure-Based Targeting of a Non-catalytic Cysteine. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 54, 15888–15891. 

PhD at MRI TUM:
Kobuch, J., Cui, H., Grünwald, B., Saftig, P., Knolle, P.A., Krüger, A., 2015. TIMP-1 signaling via CD63 triggers granulopoiesis and neutrophilia in mice. Haematologica 100, 1005–1013. 

Dubiella, C., Cui, H., Gersch, M., Brouwer, A.J., Sieber, S.A., Krüger, A., Liskamp, R.M.J., Groll, M., 2014. Selective inhibition of the immunoproteasome by ligand-induced crosslinking of the active site. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 53, 11969–11973. 

Stein, M.L., Cui, H., Beck, P., Dubiella, C., Voss, C., Krüger, A., Schmidt, B., Groll, M., 2014. Systematic comparison of peptidic proteasome inhibitors highlights the α-ketoamide electrophile as an auspicious reversible lead motif. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 53, 1679–1683. 

Undergraduate work

Hoesl, M.G., Larregola, M., Cui, H., Budisa, N., 2010. Azatryptophans as tools to study polarity requirements for folding of green fluorescent protein. Journal of Peptide Science 16, 589–595. 

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*Authors contributed equally.