“Dr. Li has made major contributions to our knowledge of the cytoskeleton and cell division in yeast,” says William B. Neaves, Ph.D., President and CEO of the Stowers Institute. “She isolated and analyzed the first mutations in the spindle checkpoint and was a founder of a new field that is important to basic cell biology and to understanding tumor progression. The lessons learned from her work apply to many other organisms and have clear relevance to human disease.”

     “As we continue to recruit outstanding scientists who lead their fields of basic research, we see the benefits of the collaborative environment that the Stowers Institute represents,” says Robb Krumlauf, Ph.D., Scientific Director. “Dr. Li will bring new strengths in basic cell biology to our distinguished team of Stowers researchers.”

     This appointment brings the Stowers Institute to a total of 18 independent research programs in cellular and molecular biology complemented by three technology centers devoted to bioinformatics, imaging, and proteomics.

     Dr. Li’s research will focus on understanding the mechanism of cell polarization and cell motility, the biochemical basis for the dynamics of the actin cytoskeleton, and how eukaryotic cells divide. At the Stowers Institute, she will apply a broad spectrum of research approaches that includes biochemistry, genetics, cell biology, and mathematical modeling.

     Dr. Li is an Associate Professor in the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School. She was the recipient of a Hoechst Marion Roussel Research Award and is the principal investigator on several NIH research grants. She earned a Ph.D. in cell biology at the University of California, San Francisco with Dr. Andrew Murray and held a Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Cancer Research Fellowship as a postdoctoral associate with Dr. David Drubin at the University of California, Berkeley. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with B.S. and M.S. degrees from Yale University.

About the Institute
     Situated on a 10-acre campus in the heart of Kansas City, Missouri, the Stowers Institute for Medical Research conducts research on the fundamental processes of cellular life. Through basic research of the highest quality, the Stowers Institute seeks insights that will lead to more effective ways of preventing and curing disease. The Institute was founded in 1994 by Jim and Virginia Stowers, two cancer survivors who have dedicated their fortune to supporting the basic research that will provide long-term solutions to gene-based diseases.