Lingyin Li

Lingyin Li (born 1981) is a Chinese American chemical biologist who is an associate professor of biochemistry at Stanford University. Her research studies the chemical biology of innate immunity to design better therapeutics. She was named one of Chemical & Engineering News Talented 12 in 2020.

Early life and education
Li was born in Xi'an. She was awarded a position on the competitive University of Science and Technology of China undergraduate program. She was a doctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she worked with Laura L. Kiessling. She moved to Harvard Medical School as a postdoctoral researcher. At Harvard, she studied why the drug Vadimezan (DMXAA) had worked in mice but not in humans. DMXAA is proposed to activate the stimulator of interferon genes (STING) pathway, which is part of the human innate immunity pathway. STING responds to inflammation and activates inflammatory proteins that trigger the adaptive immune system. The combination of the innate and adaptive immune system eliminates pathogens and is predicted to fight cancer. Li demonstrated that DMXAA binds mouse but not human STING. Li worked on cGAMP, a signalling molecule that activates STING that is broken apart by an extracellular protein.

Research and career
Li uses chemical biology to understand the mechanisms that underpin immunity, which she will use to develop new therapeutic pathways and targets. The activation of immunity can provide new therapeutic strategies for vaccines, cancer and viral infection. So far, modulators of innate immunity are broad-spectrum and poorly described, which results in imprecise drugs that cannot target specific disease.

In 2015, Li set up her own lab at Stanford University where she studies the relationship between cGAMP and STING. She has shown that a transporter pulls cGAMP away from cancer cells, after which it is broken down by the enzyme ENPP1.

In 2023, Li joined the editorial board of Chemical Biology.

Awards and honors

 * 2017 National Institutes of Health New Innovator Award
 * 2020 C&EN's Talented Twelve
 * 2022 Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry