Ren Protein Design Group

“尊重技术”

— Zilin Ren · Group Leader

We combine artificial intelligence and molecular simulation to study and design biological macromolecules, with a focus on enzymes and protein–protein interactions. Our research connects sequence design, structure prediction, and molecular dynamics to understand how structure and motion shape biological function.

Explore our research, meet our group, and build on our open code and data.

Research areas

Selected research

Models, data, and tools from our group.

Life at RPDGroup

Conversations, conferences, and moments together.

Ren Protein Design Group: Bioinformatics and systems biology
Academic exchange

Bioinformatics and systems biology

Ren Protein Design Group: Group discussion
Lab life

Group discussion

Ren Protein Design Group: Celebrating graduation
Group moments

Celebrating graduation

From the group

DynoDB published in Scientific Data

A dataset of small protein conformational ensembles from all-atom molecular dynamics simulations

Read paper ↗

GANBase published in Nature Communications

Genome-guided generative adversarial learning enables nanopore adaptive sequencing

Read paper ↗

MuFaDDG published in Bioinformatics

MuFaDDG: a sequence-based multiscale feature fusion framework for protein stability changes prediction

Read paper ↗

What we study

Research

AI-driven design, structure prediction, and molecular dynamics for enzymes and interacting proteins.

01 /
01 / Design & structure prediction

Designing enzymes and interacting proteins

We develop computational approaches for the design and structure prediction of biological macromolecules, with an emphasis on enzymes and protein complexes. By combining biological foundation models, generative modeling, and structure-based evaluation, we study the relationships between sequence, structure, and function and use them to guide molecular design.

02 /
02 / Molecular dynamics

Exploring conformational ensembles

Proteins function as dynamic conformational ensembles. We combine molecular dynamics simulations, trajectory analysis, and generative models to characterize structural flexibility and connect molecular motion with catalysis, binding, and biological function.

  • DynoM is a conditional diffusion model designed for multi-chain inputs.
  • DynoDB provides small-protein ensembles and workflows for simulation, trajectory analysis, validation, and annotation.
DynoM model architectureModel architectureView larger ↗
DynoM architecture. Original figure on GitHub ↗
03 /
03 / Protein–protein interactions

Understanding molecular recognition

We study how proteins recognize and bind one another, combining complex structure prediction, interface analysis, and molecular simulation. Our interests include enzyme-associated interactions and antibody–antigen recognition, with computational evaluation supporting the design and assessment of binding interfaces.

ABUS integrates geometric and physicochemical interface features in a deep learning framework for antigen–antibody interface scoring. The repository includes preprocessing, inference, and training utilities for evaluating candidate complex structures.

Explore ABUS ↗
ABUS architecture from panel b of the original figureModel architectureView larger ↗
Architecture detail from panel b. View the complete original figure ↗

Ren Protein Design Group

Members

Our group leader, PhD students, master's students, and alumni.

Leader

1 member

Zilin Ren

Zilin Ren

Group leader

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More about this member will be added soon.

PhD students

8 members

Yixiang Zhang

Yixiang Zhang

PhD student

2024 intake

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Admission year: 2024

Qiantong Jin

Qiantong Jin

PhD student

2025 intake

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Admission year: 2025

Yiran Shi

Yiran Shi

PhD student

2025 intake

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Admission year: 2025

Jialu Han

Jialu Han

PhD student

2026 intake

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Admission year: 2026

Xianyu Wang

Xianyu Wang

PhD student

2026 intake

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Admission year: 2026

Luyao Han

Luyao Han

PhD student

2026 intake

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Admission year: 2026

Ziyao Jin

Ziyao Jin

PhD student

2026 intake

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Admission year: 2026

Yuan Cheng

Yuan Cheng

PhD student

2027 intake

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Admission year: 2027

Master's students

21 members

Pengjia Ma

Pengjia Ma

Master's student

2024 intake

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Admission year: 2024

Songyang Diao

Songyang Diao

Master's student

2024 intake

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Admission year: 2024

Xin Yang

Xin Yang

Master's student

2024 intake

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Admission year: 2024

Ying Hu

Ying Hu

Master's student

2024 intake

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Admission year: 2024

Zhixiang Sui

Zhixiang Sui

Master's student

2024 intake

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Admission year: 2024

Guofeng Yang

Guofeng Yang

Master's student

2024 intake

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Admission year: 2024

Yubin Liu

Yubin Liu

Master's student

2024 intake

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Admission year: 2024

Yuxue Xia

Yuxue Xia

Master's student

2024 intake

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Admission year: 2024

Duo Liu

Duo Liu

Master's student

2025 intake

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Admission year: 2025

Qianyi Jia

Qianyi Jia

Master's student

2025 intake

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Admission year: 2025

Haolun Ban

Haolun Ban

Master's student

2025 intake

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Admission year: 2025

Fangyuan Xing

Fangyuan Xing

Master's student

2025 intake

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Admission year: 2025

Yufeng Zhou

Yufeng Zhou

Master's student

2025 intake

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Admission year: 2025

Yanpeng Zhang

Yanpeng Zhang

Master's student

2025 intake

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Admission year: 2025

Xinyuan Zhao

Xinyuan Zhao

Master's student

2025 intake

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Admission year: 2025

Jie Zhu

Jie Zhu

Master's student

2026 intake

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Admission year: 2026

Qiu Wang

Qiu Wang

Master's student

2026 intake

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Admission year: 2026

Ke Ding

Ke Ding

Master's student

2027 intake

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Admission year: 2027

Yuandi Wen

Yuandi Wen

Master's student

2027 intake

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Admission year: 2027

Zixuan Li

Zixuan Li

Master's student

2027 intake

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Admission year: 2027

Chuhan Tian

Chuhan Tian

Master's student

2027 intake

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Admission year: 2027

Alumni

4 members

Jianting Gong

Jianting Gong

Alumni

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More about this member will be added soon.

Yongbing Chen

Yongbing Chen

Alumni

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More about this member will be added soon.

Lili Jiang

Lili Jiang

Alumni

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More about this member will be added soon.

Chunxiao Shi

Chunxiao Shi

Alumni

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More about this member will be added soon.

The group

Ren Protein Design Group team photo with colleagues joining remotely
Ren Protein Design Group · Together, in person and online.
Our work on GitHub

Life at RPDGroup

Activities

Lab life, academic exchange, and time together.

Activity photographs

103 photographs

Selected work

Publications

First/co-first-authored or corresponding-authored work by group members. Preprints are labeled.

Google Scholar ↗
2026
Scientific Data · Research article

A dataset of small protein conformational ensembles from all-atom molecular dynamics simulations

Ying Hu, Xin Yang, Xinlei Zhu, Zhixiang Sui, Pingping Sun, Ming Ni, Xiaochen Bo, Longjia Jia, Zhiguo Fu, Zilin Ren

Scientific Data

Co-first authors: Ying Hu, Xin Yang · Corresponding author: Zilin Ren

2026
Nature Communications · Research article

Genome-guided generative adversarial learning enables nanopore adaptive sequencing

Yixiang Zhang, Pingping Sun, Jiarong Zhang, Zhiguo Fu, Xiaochen Bo, Di Guan, Ming Ni, Zilin Ren

Nature Communications · 17 · 7097

Co-first authors: Yixiang Zhang · Corresponding author: Zilin Ren

2026
Virologica Sinica · Research article

Genomic-epidemiological analysis of 15 million SARS-CoV-2 genomes reveals accelerated fitness gain of JN.1 lineage

Zhong-yi Lei, Qian-tong Jin, Xiao-min Zhang, Xiao-chen Bo, Zi-lin Ren, Yi-gang Tong, Ming Ni

Virologica Sinica · 41 · 2 · 382–391

Corresponding author: Zilin Ren

2026
Bioinformatics · Research article

MuFaDDG: a sequence-based multiscale feature fusion framework for protein stability changes prediction

Jianting Gong, Pengjia Ma, Zilin Ren, Si Li, Zhiguo Fu, Pingping Sun, Ming Ni, Xiaochen Bo

Bioinformatics · 42 · 5 · btag196

Co-first authors: Jianting Gong, Pengjia Ma

2026
Research Square · Preprint

Efficient exploration of conformational ensembles via protein interaction-informed deep learning

Zilin Ren, Duo Liu, Qianyi Jia, Qiantong Jin, Yubin Liu, Chan Liu, Zhixiang Sui, Luyao Han, Yixiang Zhang, Xin Yang, Pingping Sun, Zhiguo Fu, Chengkun Wu, Ming Ni, Xiaochen Bo

Research Square

First author: Zilin Ren

2026
Research Square · Preprint

Multimodal AI unveils a billion-scale microbial enzyme atlas

Ming Ni, Jianting Gong, Pengjia Ma, Wanyi Chen, Yibo Zhang, Lingchun Qiao, Xiaomin Zhang, Haoyue Gu, Junling Yang, Songyang Diao, Wanlin Liu, Zilin Ren, Yunming Fang, Xiaochen Bo, Tianwei Tan

Research Square

Co-first authors: Jianting Gong, Pengjia Ma

2025
Current Research in Microbial Sciences · Research article

A T cell-based ubiquitin-mediated mRNA vaccine provides cross-protection against H1N1 and B influenza viruses in mice

Yaxin Di, Ziliang Wang, Zilin Ren, Haixin Huang, Songhui Yang, Chenchao Zhang, Shibo Liang, Pengyuan Dong, Wanbo Tai, Xinyu Zhuang, Mingyao Tian

Current Research in Microbial Sciences · 9 · 100457

Co-first authors: Zilin Ren

2025
GigaScience · Research article

Characteristics and filtering of low-frequency artificial short deletion variations based on nanopore sequencing

Fuqiang Ye, Juanjuan Zhu, Xiaomin Zhang, Jiarong Zhang, Zihan Xie, Tingting Yang, Yifang Han, Xiaohong Yang, Zilin Ren, Ming Ni

GigaScience · 14 · giaf018

Corresponding author: Zilin Ren

2025
Briefings in Bioinformatics · Research article

DeepPFP: a multi-task-aware architecture for protein function prediction

Han Wang, Zilin Ren, Jinghong Sun, Yongbing Chen, Xiaochen Bo, JiGuo Xue, Jingyang Gao, Ming Ni

Briefings in Bioinformatics · 26 · 1 · bbae579

Co-first authors: Zilin Ren · Corresponding author: Zilin Ren

2025
PLOS One · Research article

Integrating genomic epidemiology and deep mutational scanning data for prevalence forecasting of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron lineages

Zhong-yi Lei, Xiao-min Zhang, Jia-lu Han, Ji-guo Xue, Jia-yi Xu, Zi-lin Ren, Yi-gang Tong, Xiao-chen Bo, Ming Ni

PLOS One · 20 · 11 · e0335520

Corresponding author: Zilin Ren

2025
Journal of Hazardous Materials · Research article

N-terminal PEGylation enhances organophosphorus hydrolase catalysis for a promising fast and long-acting prophylactic candidate

Ming Ma, Yanan Zhai, Qiantong Jin, Dan Wang, Shunye Wang, Zhuang Liu, Ziyang Wang, Chengcai Wang, Yanwei Xie, Zilin Ren, Xiang Gao, Jing Gao

Journal of Hazardous Materials · 488 · 137336

Corresponding author: Zilin Ren

2025
Journal of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology · Research article

PLMABFW: A deep learning framework for predicting Antibody–Antigen interactions using protein language model

Yongbing Chen, Qianyi Jia, Xinyue Jia, Zhiguo Fu, Pingping Sun, Bo Li, Zilin Ren

Journal of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology · 23 · 06

First author: Yongbing Chen

2024
Biophysical Chemistry · Research article

A benchmark for evaluation of structure-based online tools for antibody-antigen binding affinity

Jiayi Xu, Jianting Gong, Xiaochen Bo, Yigang Tong, Zilin Ren, Ming Ni

Biophysical Chemistry · 311 · 107253

Corresponding author: Zilin Ren

2024
Bioinformatics · Research article

CodonBERT: a BERT-based architecture tailored for codon optimization using the cross-attention mechanism

Zilin Ren, Lili Jiang, Yaxin Di, Dufei Zhang, Jianli Gong, Jianting Gong, Qiwei Jiang, Zhiguo Fu, Pingping Sun, Bo Zhou, Ming Ni

Bioinformatics · 40 · 7 · btae330

Co-first authors: Zilin Ren, Lili Jiang

2024
Briefings in Bioinformatics · Research article

NASTRA: accurate analysis of short tandem repeat markers by nanopore sequencing with repeat-structure-aware algorithm

Zilin Ren, Jiarong Zhang, Yixiang Zhang, Tingting Yang, Pingping Sun, Jiguo Xue, Xiaochen Bo, Bo Zhou, Jiangwei Yan, Ming Ni

Briefings in Bioinformatics · 25 · 6 · bbae472

Co-first authors: Zilin Ren, Yixiang Zhang · Corresponding author: Zilin Ren

2023
Electronic Research Archive · Research article

Deciphering and identifying pan-cancer RAS pathway activation based on graph autoencoder and ClassifierChain

Jianting Gong, Yingwei Zhao, Xiantao Heng, Yongbing Chen, Pingping Sun, Fei He, Zhiqiang Ma, Zilin Ren

Electronic Research Archive · 31 · 8 · 4951-4967

First author: Jianting Gong · Corresponding author: Zilin Ren

2023
Electronic Research Archive · Research article

MTNA: A deep learning based predictor for identifying multiple types of N-terminal protein acetylated sites

Yongbing Chen, Wenyuan Qin, Tong Liu, Ruikun Li, Fei He, Ye Han, Zhiqiang Ma, Zilin Ren

Electronic Research Archive · 31 · 9 · 5442-5456

First author: Yongbing Chen · Corresponding author: Zilin Ren

2023
BMC Bioinformatics · Research article

Model performance and interpretability of semi-supervised generative adversarial networks to predict oncogenic variants with unlabeled data

Zilin Ren, Quan Li, Kajia Cao, Marilyn M. Li, Yunyun Zhou, Kai Wang

BMC Bioinformatics · 23 · Suppl 3 · 572

First author: Zilin Ren

2023
2023 IEEE International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedicine (BIBM) · Conference paper

PLMTHP: An Ensemble Framework for Tumor Homing Peptide Prediction based on Protein Language Model

Yongbing Chen, Han Qin, Xiaodan Cui, Tianhui Yang, Pingping Sun, Jianting Gong, Zilin Ren

2023 IEEE International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedicine (BIBM) · 841-846

First author: Yongbing Chen

2023
Bioinformatics · Research article

THPLM: a sequence-based deep learning framework for protein stability changes prediction upon point variations using pretrained protein language model

Jianting Gong, Lili Jiang, Yongbing Chen, Yixiang Zhang, Xue Li, Zhiqiang Ma, Zhiguo Fu, Fei He, Pingping Sun, Zilin Ren, Mingyao Tian

Bioinformatics · 39 · 11 · btad646

First author: Jianting Gong · Corresponding author: Zilin Ren

2022
Frontiers in Microbiology · Research article

Rapid PCR-Based Nanopore Adaptive Sequencing Improves Sensitivity and Timeliness of Viral Clinical Detection and Genome Surveillance

Yanfeng Lin, Yan Dai, Yuqi Liu, Zhuli Ren, Hao Guo, Zhenzhong Li, Jinhui Li, Kaiying Wang, Lang Yang, Shuang Zhang, Hongbo Liu, Leili Jia, Ming Ni, Peng Li, Hongbin Song

Frontiers in Microbiology · 13 · 929241

Co-first authors: Zilin Ren

Author-name note: Zilin Ren is printed as “Zhuli Ren” in the original article.

2021
International Journal of Legal Medicine · Research article

Forensic nanopore sequencing of STRs and SNPs using Verogen’s ForenSeq DNA Signature Prep Kit and MinION

Zi-Lin Ren, Jia-Rong Zhang, Xiao-Meng Zhang, Xu Liu, Yan-Feng Lin, Hua Bai, Meng-Chun Wang, Feng Cheng, Jin-Ding Liu, Peng Li, Lei Kong, Xiao-Chen Bo, Sheng-Qi Wang, Ming Ni, Jiang-Wei Yan

International Journal of Legal Medicine · 135 · 5 · 1685–1693

First author: Zilin Ren

Author roles are checked against the original articles. Preprints have not yet been peer reviewed.

From the group

News

Publication milestones and updates from Ren Protein Design Group.

Publication

Publication in Scientific Data

A dataset of small protein conformational ensembles from all-atom molecular dynamics simulations

Read paper ↗
Publication

Publication in Nature Communications

Genome-guided generative adversarial learning enables nanopore adaptive sequencing

Read paper ↗
Publication

Publication in Virologica Sinica

Genomic-epidemiological analysis of 15 million SARS-CoV-2 genomes reveals accelerated fitness gain of JN.1 lineage

Read paper ↗
Publication

Publication in Bioinformatics

MuFaDDG: a sequence-based multiscale feature fusion framework for protein stability changes prediction

Read paper ↗
Publication

Publication in Current Research in Microbial Sciences

A T cell-based ubiquitin-mediated mRNA vaccine provides cross-protection against H1N1 and B influenza viruses in mice

Read paper ↗
Publication

Publication in GigaScience

Characteristics and filtering of low-frequency artificial short deletion variations based on nanopore sequencing

Read paper ↗
Publication

Publication in Briefings in Bioinformatics

DeepPFP: a multi-task-aware architecture for protein function prediction

Read paper ↗
Publication

Publication in PLOS One

Integrating genomic epidemiology and deep mutational scanning data for prevalence forecasting of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron lineages

Read paper ↗
Publication

Publication in Journal of Hazardous Materials

N-terminal PEGylation enhances organophosphorus hydrolase catalysis for a promising fast and long-acting prophylactic candidate

Read paper ↗
Publication

Publication in Journal of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology

PLMABFW: A deep learning framework for predicting Antibody–Antigen interactions using protein language model

Read paper ↗
Publication

Publication in Biophysical Chemistry

A benchmark for evaluation of structure-based online tools for antibody-antigen binding affinity

Read paper ↗
Publication

Publication in Bioinformatics

CodonBERT: a BERT-based architecture tailored for codon optimization using the cross-attention mechanism

Read paper ↗
Publication

Publication in Briefings in Bioinformatics

NASTRA: accurate analysis of short tandem repeat markers by nanopore sequencing with repeat-structure-aware algorithm

Read paper ↗
Publication

Publication in Electronic Research Archive

Deciphering and identifying pan-cancer RAS pathway activation based on graph autoencoder and ClassifierChain

Read paper ↗
Publication

Publication in Electronic Research Archive

MTNA: A deep learning based predictor for identifying multiple types of N-terminal protein acetylated sites

Read paper ↗
Publication

Publication in BMC Bioinformatics

Model performance and interpretability of semi-supervised generative adversarial networks to predict oncogenic variants with unlabeled data

Read paper ↗
Publication

Publication in 2023 IEEE International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedicine (BIBM)

PLMTHP: An Ensemble Framework for Tumor Homing Peptide Prediction based on Protein Language Model

Read paper ↗
Publication

Publication in Bioinformatics

THPLM: a sequence-based deep learning framework for protein stability changes prediction upon point variations using pretrained protein language model

Read paper ↗
Publication

Publication in Frontiers in Microbiology

Rapid PCR-Based Nanopore Adaptive Sequencing Improves Sensitivity and Timeliness of Viral Clinical Detection and Genome Surveillance

Read paper ↗
Publication

Publication in International Journal of Legal Medicine

Forensic nanopore sequencing of STRs and SNPs using Verogen’s ForenSeq DNA Signature Prep Kit and MinION

Read paper ↗

Ren Protein Design Group

About

AI, structure, and dynamics for molecular design.

About our research

Ren Protein Design Group studies biological macromolecules at the intersection of artificial intelligence, structural biology, and molecular simulation. We focus on enzymes and protein–protein interactions, developing methods for molecular design, structure prediction, and conformational analysis. Our work links sequence, structure, dynamics, and function through reusable models, datasets, and scientific software.

We share code and workflows through our GitHub organization. Each project provides its own installation instructions, examples, access information, licensing, and citation guidance.

Discover our research →
Ren Protein Design Group team
Ren Protein Design Group

Connect with us

Contact

Find the right place for project questions, feedback, and research inquiries.

Project questions

For installation help, reproducibility questions, or feedback on a model or dataset, open an issue in the corresponding project repository.

Find a project →

Research inquiries

For research questions and collaboration inquiries, contact Zilin Ren.

zilin.ren@outlook.com

Code & data

Open resources

Public models, datasets, and workflows. Follow each repository's README for installation and usage.

Generative model01

DynoM

Conditional diffusion modeling of protein conformational ensembles with multi-chain inputs.

Web database02

DynoDB database

Molecular dynamics trajectories and analysis results for protein complexes.

Scoring framework04

ABUS

Preprocessing, inference, and training tools for antigen–antibody interface scoring.

Check the license and citation guidance for each resource before use. Model and dataset access requirements are documented by the respective projects.

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Our members

Member profile