Dr. Hong Li leverages CRISPR, cryo-EM and other leading-edge technologies to explore the mechanisms underlying RNA-mediated processes.

She earned a B.S. in physics from Sichuan University and a Ph.D. in biophysics from University of Rochester. Following her graduate studies, Dr. Li completed postdoctoral fellowships at CalTech and Brookhaven Lab before establishing her independent lab at Florida State University in 1999. Since then, she has built a multi-faceted research program that has elucidated key details about RNA-mediated processes and informed new strategies for gene editing, cancer diagnosis and virus detection.

In 2021, Dr. Li was appointed the Director of the Institute of Molecular Biophysics at Florida State University, a position she held until joining Van Andel Institute’s Department of Structural Biology in 2024.

Dr. Li is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and held the prestigious Pfeiffer Family Endowed Professorship for Cancer Research at Florida State. She currently is an associate editor for The CRISPR Journal.