Hu Li, Ph.D.

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SUMMARY

Hu Li, Ph.D., and his research team are focused on systems pharmacology and individualized systems medicine. Dr. Li's team is developing network approaches to studying drug action and side effects in the context of whole-genome regulatory networks. This system can greatly illuminate the understanding of disease mechanisms underlying drugs' modes of action and will ultimately lead to precision medicine for each patient suffering from a devastating disease. His team is currently working to find how a constellation of genes drives disease formation and progression in the form of a regulatory network. The goal is to understand how disease networks are differed among individuals to capture network variations and benefit individualized systems-based therapy.

Focus areas

• Practicing rigorous translational research in pharmacogenomics and individualized medicine, with a novel network approach to pharmacogenomics discoveries that leads to a better understanding of drug-response variations and therapeutic treatments for individual patients
• Developing novel network tools and integrating various large-scale biomedical omics data to unravel the molecular mechanisms and pathophysiological roots that underpin complex disease systems at the personalized network level

Significance to patient care

Patient-specific diagnosis and formulation of the right drug prescription is the major aim in personalized medicine. Understanding disease etiology at the individual regulatory network perspective provides broader insight to prescribe drugs with minimized adverse drug reactions and maximized efficacy. Dr. Li's research results will provide and prioritize potential candidates for experimental validation and clinical application in individualized medicine.

Professional highlights

• Funding recipient, The Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fund for AI Research and Innovation, 2023.