Li Jingmei

Li Jingmei is a research scientist with a primary focal point on breast cancer research at the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) in the Laboratory of Women's Health and Genetics. Li’s research focuses on understanding the causes of cancer and preventing or early detection of cancer. Her personal mission is to improve the lives of women. Li is passionate about science communication, education, and promoting breast cancer awareness.

Life
Li received her bachelor's degree in Life Sciences with a minor in Technopreneurship at the National University of Singapore and was part of the University Scholars Programme (USP). She graduated in 2006 and was named valedictorian of the Faculty of Science. Li extended her undergraduate studies for one year to participate in the NUS Overseas College (NOC) programme in Silicon Valley, USA. She completed her Ph.D. studies at the Karolinska Institute (Karolinska Institutet) in Sweden.

As a child, Li imagined herself being a doctor, mathematician, rocket scientist, engineer, astronaut, nurse, teacher, and a few other careers. During her time at her graduate school, Karolina Institutet in Sweden, she worked with clinicians and researchers who were very passionate about their work which inspired her to further pursue breast cancer research. One of Li’s biggest inspirations in going into the field of breast cancer research is thanks to her Ph.D. Supervisor, Professor Per Hall as she found his enthusiasm for research infectious and could help many more people.

Works and research
Li works as a group leader and Senior Research Scientist in the Laboratory of Women’s Health & Genetics at the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS). She focuses on examining the DNA to look for genetic differences that define who is most likely to develop or die from cancer and the non-genetic factors.

Li mentions in an interview with Augustin Chiam, a political science and USP student at NUS, that cancer research within Sweden is easier than within Singapore. This is due to the fact that Sweden has a nation-wide centralized database of patient’s records that span back a few generations while on the other hand, the patient data within Singapore is owned by private hospitals thus not easily accessible.

Li wants to also focus on how ethnicity plays a factor due to the fact that most research on breast cancer has been done on mainly European participants and where only 14% of genetic breast cancer studies have involved Asians.

Li engaged and spoke about cancer in three TED talks (TEDxSIT, TEDxNTU, and TEDxISKL ).

Awards and honors

 * In 2001, Li was awarded the National University of Singapore (NUS) Undergraduate Scholarship.


 * After graduating in 2006, Li was awarded the A*STAR Graduate Scholarship which led to her going to Karolinska Institutet in Sweden for her postgraduate studies on breast cancer research. As of that time, Li was one of only 15 women scientists who received the fellowship.


 * In 2014, Li was awarded the UNESCO-L’Oréal International for Women in Science Fellowship that gave her a US$40,000 grant to encourage greater gender parity in the sciences.


 * In 2017, Li received the Young Scientist Award administered by the Singapore National Academy of Science.


 * In 2018, she was inducted as a class of 2018 National Research Foundation Fellow.