Dr. Qianhong Li is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine, at the University of Louisville. She is Director of Stem Cell and Pathology Core at the same university and Director of Biomarker Core in the NIH CAESAR. In these capacities, she has been directing two vigorous research laboratories and investigating the mechanisms responsible for myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury and developing the cardioprotective strategies in the fields of gene therapy and stem cell therapy for 18 years.
Dr. Li is a recipient of two NIH grants and several regional grants. She has been a member of the Council on Basic Cardiovascular Sciences of the American Heart Association (AHA), of the International Society for Heart Research, and of the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy for more than 15 years. She has serviced as an international mentor in cardiovascular field elected by American Heart Association for 10 years. She has also served as a national reviewer for several extramural-national grant review panels and for highly impact journals including Circulation, Circulation Research, Hypertension, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology, Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, American Journal of Physiology, Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, Basic Research in Cardiology, PLOS ONE, and Cell cycle.
In 2011, Dr. Li was elected as the Fellow of the national AHA (FAHA) because of her major and productive contributions in cardiovascular basic sciences. In recognition of her leadership in the field of gene and cell therapy, Dr. Li has been appointed as a member of the Clinical Trials and Regulatory Affairs Committee in the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy from 2014 to 2017. Combining the powers of molecular biology and gene transfer with regenerative capacity of stem cells, Dr. Li and her associates are exploring the potentiation and mechanisms of adult cardiac stem cells to repair the damaged myocardium. As a pioneer in this area, Dr. Li has created and established an adult cardiac stem cell system in mice, rats and pigs. So far, this system has more than 30 adult cardiac stem cell populations and been funded by the NIH.
Dr. Qianhong Li’s research interest includes
Adult cardiac stem cell therapy for cardiac repair
Gene therapy for myocardial injury
Molecular mechanisms underlying cell and gene therapies on cardiac repair
Molecular mechanisms of myocardial ischemia and reperfusion injury
Ischemic preconditioning in the myocardium
Protection of ischemic myocardium
