Heng-Hong Li, MD, PhD

My research interest is expanding in two directions: anti-tumor immunity and toxicogenomics. The research on anti-tumor immunity uses radiation treatment as a method to investigate how cytotoxic cancer therapy modulates the immune microenvironment in tumors. The goals of our studies on cellular stress signaling and toxicogenomics are to take advantage of transcriptomic approaches to decipher various toxicities of xenobiotics and to develop the next-generation analysis methods for mechanism-based toxicity assessment.

We are enthusiastic in using cutting-edge technologies and advanced approaches that may reveal new answers for old questions with novel perspectives and mechanistic details. Benefitting from the substantial experience in transcriptomics and bioinformatics which I gained during my post-doctoral training in Dr. Albert Fornace's laboratory, we successfully identified a unique transcriptomic biomarker for genotoxicity. Application of metabolomics approaches has led to my laboratory s findings on dysfunction in T cells after irradiation. The combination of fast-growing omics technologies and powerful genetic engineering tools is taking biomedical research into the emerging big-data era. There is a long way to go, and it is "the best of times"...