Yunqing Li 

Biography

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: Dr. Li pursued her undergraduate and graduate education at the Yunnan University in China. She then held a teaching position at the Kunming Medical College in China before pursuing her doctoral degree in medical genetics from Sichuan University. She came to the United States in 2003 to complete postdoctoral fellowships in the Department of Interdisciplinary Oncology at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and in the Department of Neurology at Kennedy Krieger Institute. In 2005, she was recruited as a faculty member for the Department of Neurology at the University of Virginia. In 2009, she joined the Kennedy Krieger Institute as a faculty member. Dr. Li is a member of the American Association for Cancer Research. In 2001, she won a Natural Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars in Yunnan, China. In 2005, she was awarded a research fellowship by the American Brain Tumor Association. In 2011, she was awarded a discovery grant. RESEARCH SUMMARY: Glioblastoma (GBM) is a very aggressive and fatal brain tumor. Despite aggressive therapy, the average median survival of patients with glioblastoma is approximately 15 months. Recently, subpopulations of tumor cells with stem cell-like properties have been identified in glioblastoma. These cells, typically referred to as glioma stem-like cells (GBM SCs) or glioma-initiating cells, are considered to be responsible for the propagation, recurrence, and therapeutic resistance of glioma. Dr. Li’s research focuses on understanding the origin of GBM SCs and the molecular mechanisms orchestrating GBM SCs maintenance. Her research studies the signaling pathways and transcriptional events that mediate GBM SCs growth. The goal of research is to develop new therapeutic strategies based on GBM SC targets. The techniques used are a wide array of state-of-the-art cancer research methods including molecular and cell biology, biochemistry, gene differential expression, gene knock-down and delivery techniques and animal studies.

Research Interest

Neurology