Introduction of PI
Professor Lei Li is a full research professor and associate professor of teaching at the Faculty of Life and Health Sciences, Shenzhen University of Advanced Technology (SUAT). She previously served at the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (SIAT), Chinese Academy of Sciences, where she advanced from assistant to full investigator. She also completed a visiting fellowship at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, collaborating with Professor Guoping Feng.
Professor Li’s research lies at the intersection of emotional neuroscience, neuroendocrinology, and reproductive health. Her work focuses on how emotional states—such as stress, anxiety, and depression—modulate reproductive and metabolic function via neural circuits and hormonal pathways. Combining molecular, behavioral, and environmental approaches, her lab also works closely with clinicians in gynecology, andrology, urology, and psychiatry to explore the brain-body interactions underlying infertility, sexual behavior abnormality, and metabolic diseases.
She has secured about 10 million RMB in competitive funding from agencies including the NSFC, Guangdong Science and Technology Department, Shenzhen Medical Research Fund, and ANSO. She has also led four international collaborative projects with partners in the United States, France, Japan, and Bangladesh. She has published more than 30 peer-reviewed papers in journals such as Current Biology and Journal of Hazardous Materials, with an h-index of 17 and over 1,250 citations (Google Scholar updated in July 2025). Her notable discoveries include the regulatory role of the locus coeruleus–sympathetic axis in ovarian and liver function, and the impact of microplastic exposure on brain–reproductive system communication.
In addition to her research, Professor Li has designed and taught bilingual and Chinese/English-language courses in neuroscience and physiology at the graduate and undergraduate levels. She has received several institutional honors for her teaching excellence, including the "Outstanding Teacher Award" and the "Most Favorite Teacher Award by the Students."
She is also active in science communication, having delivered public talks through TEDx, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and national media platforms. In 2025, she led the writing of a UNESCO-endorsed chapter in Ocean Literacy on microplastic pollution and transdisciplinary scientific collaboration—marking the only such contribution led by a mainland China team.
Through her combined efforts in research, teaching, and public engagement, Professor Li advances our understanding of how the brain shapes health across the body and lifespan.
Selected Talks:
- HowEmotion Affects Health – TEDxNingbo
- Is Emotion Related to Infertility? – Ge Zhi Lun Dao
- Environment, Emotion, and Health – CAS Public Science Day
Research Area
1. Circuit-level mechanisms underlying brain–reproductive organ communication.
2. Neural substrates of emotion-driven modulation of visceral function.
3. Clinically integrated research on the comorbidity of affective disorders with reproductive and metabolic dysregulation.
