Zhongwei Li, PhD

Trained as a stem cell biologist, Dr. Zhongwei Li has been using mouse models, human pluripotent stem cells, kidney progenitor cells, and kidney organoids as model systems to study stem cell biology, organ regeneration, and disease modeling for more than 17 years. As a graduate student in Dr. Ye-Guang Chen’s lab at Tsinghua University (2007-2012), he studied the molecular mechanisms of how different signaling pathways coordinate to determine pluripotent stem cell fates. Dr. Li identified a novel signaling cascade, BMP/Smad/DUSP9/ERK, essential in the crosstalk and intracellular integration of extrinsic signals (LIF and BMP) to regulate pluripotent stem cell fates (Li et al., Cell Stem Cell, 2012). As a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte’s lab at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies (2012-2017), he focused on kidney regeneration and developed a three-dimensional culture system which enabled, for the first time, the long-term expansion of primary nephron progenitor cells, which can further generate nephrons, the functional units of the kidney, in a nephron organoid model in vitro and in a chimeric mouse model in vivo (Li et al., Cell Stem Cell, 2016). As an assistant professor at USC (2017-present), his long-term research goal is to engineer a synthetic kidney from stem cells as an alternative off-the-shelf source for kidney transplantation (funded by NIH Director’s New Innovator Award). Dr. Li’s short-term research goal is to develop next-generation mature and functional kidney organoid models for kidney disease modeling and drug discovery (Zeng et al., Nature Communications, 2021; Huang et al., Cell Stem Cell, 2024). His research combines state-of-the-art stem cell technologies, genome editing tools, and bioengineering approaches to achieve these goals. Dr. Li’s lab integrates research strategies from a broad range of disciplines including molecular biology, cell biology, developmental biology, genetics, genomics, bioinformatics, and bioengineering.

• NIH: NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, 2022
• University of Southern California: “Heros Among Us” Medal, 2022
• School of Life Sciences of Tsinghua University: Representative Alumni Award, 2021
• Keck School of Medicine of USC: Dean’s Pilot Award, 2019
• Wright Foundation: Wright Foundation Pilot Award, 2018
• Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (ISTIC): Top 100 Influential Research Articles in China (2012), 2013
• Johnson & Johnson: “Johnson & Johnson Asia Outstanding Thesis Award in Bio-tech”, 1st Prize, 2012
• Ray Wu Memorial Fund: Ray Wu Prize, 2012
• City of Beijing: Outstanding Ph.D. Graduate Award, 2012
• Tsinghua University: Outstanding Ph.D. Graduate Award, 2012
• Tsinghua University: Outstanding Ph.D. Thesis Award, 2012
• Sichuan University: Outstanding Undergraduate Award, 2007
• Sichuan University: Outstanding Undergraduate Thesis Award, 2007

• Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California — Postdoc — 08/2017 — Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine
• Tsinghua University, Beijing, China — PhD — 07/2012 — Molecular Cell Biology
• Sichuan University, Chengdu, China — BS — 07/2007 — Biotechnology

• USC Stem Cell scientists Justin Ichida and Zhongwei Li receive NIH Director’s Awards (10/11/2022)
• USC Stem Cell scientists make big progress in building mini-kidneys (6/15/2021)
• USC Stem Cell junior faculty balance babies with biomedical research (6/20/2019)
• Growing hope: New organs? Not yet, but stem cell research is getting closer (4/23/2018)
• USC Stem Cell scientist Zhongwei Li is writing a recipe for a kidney (9/28/2017)

• Lindstrom, Nils
• McDonough, Alicia
• Quadrato, Giorgia
• Chuong, Cheng-Ming
• Grubbs, Brendan
• Gill, Inderbir