Dr. Zhongwei Li, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Medicine, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. He received his Ph.D. from Tsinghua University where he studied the molecular mechanisms governing pluripotent stem cell fate decisions in Dr. Ye-Guang Chen’s lab (2007-2012). He then completed postdoctoral studies at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in Dr. Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte’s lab, where he focused on developing stem cell-based approaches to kidney regeneration (2012-2017). In his independent laboratory at the University of Southern California (2017-now), he is combining stem cell techniques, genome editing tools and bioengineering approaches to develop novel strategies for kidney regeneration and to establish platforms for kidney disease modeling and drug discovery. He is a recipient of Ray Wu Prize (2012), and NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (2022), among other recognitions.
