Education

2007-2012, Singapore-MIT Alliance, Computational and System Biology, Ph.D.

2003-2007, Wuhan University, Biology, B.S.

Academic Experience

2025.10-present, Changping Laboratory, Beijing, Leading Scientist

2023.02-2026.01, Model Animal Research Center, Nanjing University, Director

2018.09-present, Nanjing University, National Resource Center for Mutant Mice, State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Professor

2016.06-2018.06, Pasteur Institute, France, Research Associate

2012.07-2016.05, Pasteur Institute, France, Postdoctoral Researcher

Overview of Academic Research

The Yan Li Lab leverages humanized mouse models as a core research platform to advance human-centered biomedical science and overcome the translational limitations arising from species differences between conventional animal models and humans. Our research integrates basic and translational studies across four major areas:

1.   Development of fully humanized mouse models with reconstituted human immune systems and organs;

2.   Elucidation of the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying cancer, aging, and degenerative diseases;

3.  Discovery of human-specific immunotherapeutic targets and therapeutic agents;

4.  Generation and optimization of cell, antibody, and gene therapies using humanized mouse platforms.

The lab has published works in leading journals, including Cell, Cancer Cell, Cell Research, and Nature Cancer. The lab has also translated multiple patented discoveries into practical applications. Collectively, our work has advanced the independent industrial development of humanized mouse technologies and facilitated the clinical translation of innovative immunotherapeutic drugs and treatment strategies.

Major Honor and Awards

2025，Outstanding Young Scientist (Finalist), Chinese Society for Cell Biology

2024，Impactful U45 Young Investigator Award, China Biopharmaceutical Industry Innovation & Translation Consortium

2023,  Leading Scientist, Jiangsu Province Frontier “Climbing Program”

2021,  Recipient of the National Natural Science Foundation of China Excellent Young Scientists Fund

2020,  Leading Talent of “Double Innovation” Team, Jiangsu Province

2019,  Chief Scientist of the Young Scientists Project under the National Key R&D Program of China

2019, Distinguished Professor, Jiangsu Province

2013(Seoul)/2016(Zurich),  Outstanding Young Investigator, International Workshop on Humanized Mice

Representative Research Achievements 

1.Zhike Lu#, Ke Ni#, Wenjun Liu#, Qingkai Song, Rong Zheng, Ming Wei, Yinling Zhang, Jing Wang, Lina Wei, Chenlu Wu, Qingfeng Zhang, Jiamei Wu, Shuai Ding, Rujie Zhu, Chunyu Cheng, Yanyi Cong, Yinxia Xu, Baorui Kong, Shanshan Wu, Gang Wang, Xiaojuan Wang, Yalin Wang, Xu Qian, Ruixia Deng, Hui Chen, Yan Li*, Lijia Ma*.(2026) An AAV variant enables human T cell engineering in vivo, Vita, DOI: 10.15302/vita.2026.01.0008.

2.Chunyu Cheng#, Jing Sun#, Chun Lu#, Qian Yu#, Yiyun He, Bingqing Wu, Deshan Ren, Shuai Ding*, Jincun Zhao*, Yan Li*. (2025, cover story) A Lung-Immune Dual-Humanized Mouse Using Cryopreserved Tissue Enables Infection and Immune Profiling of Human Common Cold Coronaviruses, Advanced Science, DOI : 10.1002/advs.202512097

3.Wei Liu#, Tao Shi#, Chun Lu , Keying Che , Zijian Zhang , Yuting Luo , Daniel Hirschhorn,, Hanbing Wang , Shaorui Liu , Yan Wang , Shuang Liu , Haiqiao Sun, Jun Lu , Yuan Liu , Dongquan Shi , Shuai Ding , Heping Xu , Liaoxun Lu , Jianming Xu , Jun Xin , Yinming Liang ,Taha Merghoub*, Jia Wei*, Yan Li*. (2025) Human myelocyte and metamyelocyte-stage neutrophils suppress tumor immunity and promote cancer progression. Cell Research. DOI:10.1038/s41422-025-01145-0

4.Tao Shi#, Wei Liu#, Yuting Luo, Kaijie Liang, Shiji Ren, Xueru Song, Fangcen Liu, Chun Lu, Daniel Hirschhorn, Hanbing Wang, Yipeng Zhang, Yiran Cai1, Yue Wang, Yunfeng Pan, Wenqi Liu, Yang Nie, Ziliang Zhang, Lixia Yu,Shuai Ding, Baorui Liu, Taha Merghoub*, Yan Li*, Jia Wei* (2025). Chil3+ immature neutrophils inhibit anti-tumor immunity and impedeimmune checkpoint blockade therapy in bone metastases. Cancer Cell. DOI :10.1016/j.ccell.2025.07.007

5.Xueru Song#, Chun Lu#, Tao Shi#, Hanbing Wang, Wei Liu, Yuting Luo, Xiaoyu Zhou, Yue Wang, Shiji Ren, Lixia Yu, Baorui Liu, Yan Li*, Jia Wei*(2025) MHC II-restricted neoantigen vaccine reverses immune microenvironment and overcomes resistance to immune checkpoint inhibitors in cold tumors, Med, DOI:10.1016/j.medj.2025.100936

6.Shuang Liu#, Lin-Xing Wei#, Qian Yu#, Zhi-Wei Guo, Chang-You Zhan, Lei-Lei Chen*, Yan Li*, Dan Ye*. (2025, cover story) Targeting IRG1 in tumor-associated macrophages for cancer therapy. Protein & Cell. DOI: 10.1093/procel/pwaf012

7.Jiancheng Gao# , Danling Gu# , Kailin Yang# , Junxia Zhang# , Qiankun Lin# , Wei Yuan# , Xu Zhu# , Deobrat Dixit , Ryan C Gimple , Hao You , Qian Zhang , Zhumei Shi , Xiao Fan , Qiulian Wu , Chenfei Lu , Zhangchun Cheng , Daqi Li , Linjie Zhao , Bin Xue , Zhu Zhu , Zhe Zhu , Hui Yang , Ningwei Zhao , Wei Gao , Yingmei Lu , Junfei Shao , Chuandong Cheng , Dapeng Hao , Shuo Yang , Yun Chen , Xiaoming Wang , Chunsheng Kang , Jing Ji , Jianghong Man , Sameer Agnihotri , Qianghu Wang , Fan Lin , Xu Qian , Stephen C Mack , Zhibin Hu , Chaojun Li , Michael D Taylor , Yan Li* , Nu Zhang* , Jeremy N Rich* , Yongping You* , Xiuxing Wang*.(2025)Infiltrating plasma cells maintain glioblastoma stem cells through IgG-Tumor binding. Cancer Cell. DOI: 10.1016/j.ccell.2024.12.006

8.Feng Lin, Shenyi Yin,  Zijian Zhang, Ying Yu, Haoming Fang, Zhen Liang, Rujie Zhu, Haitao Zhou, Jianjie Li, Kunxia Ca, Weiming Guo, Shan Qin, Yuxuan Zhang, Chenghao Lu, Han Li, Shibo Liu, Heng Zhang, Buqing Ye, Jian Lin*, Yan Li*, Xiaozheng Kang*, Jianzhong Jeff Xi*, Peng R. Chen*. (2024) Multimodal targeting chimeras enable integrated immunotherapy leveraging tumor-immune microenvironment. Cell. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.10.016


9.Xiangyu Chen, Jing Zhao, Shuai Yue, Ziyu Li, Xiang Duan, Yao Lin, Yang Yang, Leiqiong Gao, Zhiwei Pan, Xiaofan Yang, Xingxing Su, Min Huang, Xiao Li, Ye Zhao, Xuehui Zhang, Zhirong Li, Li Hu, Jianfang Tang, Yaxing Hao, Qin Tian, Yifei Wang, Lifan Xu, Qizhao Huang, Yingjiao Cao, Yaokai Chen, Bo Zhu, Yan Li*, Fan Bai*, Guozhong Zhang*, Lilin Ye*. (2024) Targeting tumor cells toward the antigenic specificity of bystander T cells in tumor microenvironment potentiates cancer immunotherapy. Nature Cancer. Doi:10/1038/s43018-024-00760-x

10.Yan Li, Guillemette Masse Ranson, Zacarias Garcia, Timothee Bruel, Ayrin Kok-Harunova, Helene Strick-Marchand, Gregory Jouvion, Nicolas Serafini, Ai Ing Lim, Mathilde Dusseaux, Thierry Hieu, Frank Bourgade, Antoine Toubert, Daniela Finke, Oliver Schwartz, Phillippe Bousso, Hugo Mouquet and James P. Di Santo. (2018) A human immune system mouse model with robust lymph node development. Nature Methods 10.1038/s41592-018-0071-6