Li lab members

Dr. Yun Li leaning against a railing, smiling

Dr. Yun Li

EmailTwitterORCID

Dr. Yun Li is a neurobiologist interested in understanding human brain development and diseases. She attended graduate school at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Her PhD work, conducted in the lab of Luis Parada, focused on using genetically engineered mouse models to study psychiatric disorders like depression and anxiety, as well as neurodegeneration such as Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s diseases.

As a postdoctoral fellow, Yun worked in the lab of Rudolf Jaenisch at The Whitehead Institute and MIT. She used human pluripotent stem cells to create “disease-in-a-dish” models of human brain disorders such as Rett Syndrome and microcephaly. Her work also combined brain organoid with CRISPR genome editing, to create 3-dimensional models of human brain development and diseases.

Dr. Yun Li is currently a Scientist in the Developmental, Stem Cell & Cancer Biology Program at The Hospital for Sick Children, and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto. She is also a Medicine by Design Investigator, and received Young Investigator Award recognitions from the Stem Cell Network, Brain Canada, Epilepsy Canada, Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, and Simons Foundation.

Aditi Aggarwal

Li lab alumni

Graduate Student

  • Liona Vu (2019-2022), University of Toronto Molecular Genetics M.S. student, graduated April 2022. Currently at Sanofi.

Technicians

  • Filomena Grosso (2018-2019), currently at Blue Rock Therapeutics.
  • Ivy Tsu (2018-2019), currently at Takeda.
  • Jeff Lam (2019-2021), currently at Blue Rock Therapeutics.
  • Alex Ng (2021-2022).

Undergraduate Students

  • Brook Green (2018), SSuRe summer student, currently PhD student at the University of Toronto.
  • Brendan Rooney (2018), SSuRe summer student, currently PhD student at Harvard University.
  • Chi Zhang (2018), Tsinghua-UofT exchange summer student, currently PhD student at the University of Toronto.
  • Joseph Lee (2018-2019), UofT undergraduate research student and volunteer, currently PhD student at the Kyoto University.
  • Avery Albert (2018-2019), UofT undergraduate research student.
  • Negin Imani Farahini (2019), SSuRe summer student, currently at NOTCH Therapeutics.
  • Xuhua Huang (2019), Zhejiang-UofT exchange summer student, currently medical student at Zhejiang University.
  • Clara Hick (2020), UofT undergraduate research student.
  • Yolanda Liu (2022), Amgen Scholar, UofT undergraduate research student.
  • Edward Chen (2022), SSuRe summer student, NSERC undergraduate student, currently graduate student at the University of Toronto.
  • Lucinda Zhu (2022-2023), SSuRe summer student, MGY480 research student, currently graduate student at the University of Toronto.
  • Derek Tea (2023-2024), MGY480 research student, SSuRe summer student, currently graduate student at the University of Toronto.
  • Juan Escorcia Dominguez (2023-2024), HMB496 research student, currently graduate student at the University of Toronto,
  • Ahmed Moselhi (2023-2024), HMB496 research student, SSuRe summer student, currently graduate student at ETH Zurich.
  • Guoria Sun (2023-2025), SURFiN research student, currently undergraduate student at the University of Toronto.
  • Neve Chamberlain (2024-2025), MGY480 research student, currently undergraduate student at the University of Toronto.
  • Armaan Gandhi (2024-2025), MGY480 research student, currently undergraduate student at the University of Toronto.
  • Sarah Li (2024-2025), HMB496 research student, currently undergraduate student at the University of Toronto.
  • Louis Wu (2024-2025), MGY480 research student, currently incoming graduate student at the University of Toronto.