Dr. Jun Li is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. He studies vector biology and host-pathogen interaction. His group has successfully identified one novel pathway mediating Plasmodium parasite invasion in mosquitoes, a candidate protein as a malaria vaccine antigen, and a compound to block malaria transmission. As a PI, he has led several research projects supported by NSF CAREER award and NIH Research grants.
research interests
Mosquito-malaria interaction.
Mosquitoes transmit many diseases including malaria and the recent Zika virus. Li's research focuses on pathogen infection pathways using combinational approaches of genomics, chemistry and biochemistry. His group has successfully identified one novel pathway mediating Plasmodium parasite invasion in mosquitoes, a candidate protein as a malaria vaccine antigen, and a compound to block malaria transmission. As a PI, he has led several research projects supported by NSF CAREER award and NIH Research grants.
Using bioinformatics approaches to analyze the genome sequences and to visualize data Genome-wide association approach to find mosquito genes of interest Biochemical and molecular biology approaches to investigate the function of the candidate trait-related gene Develop vaccines and small molecule drugs targeting the pathways