Chunsheng Li, PhD

Chunsheng Li, PhD, is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Li graduated B. Sc. in Environmental Biology and Ecology from Peking University. He subsequently received an M.Sc in Protein Engineering and Plant Genetic Engineering from Peking University. Dr Li completed his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology under the supervision of Professor Jacek J. Hawiger at Vanderbilt University. Having focused on molecular mechanism and protein engineering of adaptor proteins in innate immunity during his doctoral research, he pursued post-doctoral training in the laboratory of Professor George Coukos in the Ovarian Cancer Research Center at the University of Pennsylvania, where he worked to develop antibody-targeted cancer imaging and therapeutics. His research has been published in leading journals. In addition to the OCRA’s prestigious Liz Tilberis Award, he has been fortunate to win several awards including the Sandy Rollman Foundation, Tina’s Wish Foundation, the Ovarian Cancer SPORE pilot through the Fox Chase Cancer Center, and pilot grant from the American Cancer Society.

His current research interests include cancer targeted theranostics and the creation of innovative platforms for drug delivery by combining the tools of antibody engineering, immunology, molecular biology, and nanotechnology. He is extremely grateful for the generous support of the OCRA, which is enabling his group to investigate the impact of antibody-targeted therapy on cancer and immune cells in the ovarian tumor microenvironment to enable mechanistic determination of antibody targeted therapy. It is hoped that invoking the immune system by antibody-drugs could generate a memory response that might improve the magnitude and frequency of responses, leading to improvement of treatment outcomes of women with ovarian cancer.