Dr. Li Lu obtained her Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Sciences from the School of Biomedical Sciences (SBS) in 2016 under the supervision of Prof. Chan Wai-yee, focusing on the regulatory role of microRNA in human embryonic development and human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) differentiation.

After graduation from SBS, Dr. Li joined Prof. Vassilios Papadopoulos’s Laboratory in the School of Pharmacy, University of Southern California as a Postdoctoral Fellow in 2017 to establish male hypogonadism disease models and to discover new drugs for treating male hypogonadism. In 2019, she reported the successful induction of human Leydig-like cells derived from hiPSCs, which may provide a source for transplantation for the clinical therapy of male hypogonadism. This result was subsequently published in PNAS journal and highlighted on the front cover, and also reported by Daily Mail, Science Daily, and Medical Press. With her discovery of in vitro models of male hypogonadism, she was conferred with the 2019 Anna Steinberger Trainee Research Excellence Award by the American Society of Andrology.

Dr. Li highly regards the training and support she received from SBS which always encourage her to overcome challenges in research and life. While she is now focusing on exploring the underlying mechanism of male hypogonadism and screening new compounds for treating hypogonadal men, she will continue to work on identifying new methods for treating hypogonadal men in a highly accurate and personalized way.

Dr. Li (front row, right) with her current mentor, Prof. Vassilios Papadopoulos (front row, left) and her labmates

Dr. Li Lu