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Wenqing Li, Ph.D.

Laboratory of Molecular Immunoregulation Immunological Cytokine Group Staff Scientist Center for Cancer Research National Cancer Institute Bldg. 560 /Rm. 31-46 P.O. Box B Frederick, MD 21702-1201 Phone:   301-846-6977 Fax:   Fax Number not listed E-Mail:   liwenq@mail.nih.gov

Biography

Dr. Li received her B.S. and M.S. in biochemistry from Zhongshan (Sun Yat-sen) University, China and obtained her Ph. D in biomedical sciences from the University of Montreal. In 2001, she joined the Laboratory of Molecular Immunoregulation under Dr. Scott Durum working on the molecular mechanisms of IL-7 in T cell development and homeostasis. She was a postdoctoral and research fellow before becoming the staff scientist at NCI-Frederick.

Research

Dr. Li's research goal is to understand the intracellular pathways related to the IL-7 effects on T cell apoptosis and proliferation. She found that IL-7 promotes T cell survival and division by blocking degradation of Mcl-1 and inducing degradation of the cell cycle inhibitor p27kip1. Her current work is focused on identifying the ubiquitination pathways that IL-7 controls the stability of Mcl-1 and p27kip1 in T cells. The same pathways used by IL-7 may be preempted in carcinogenesis, since Mcl-1 is an oncogene and p27kip1 is a tumor suppressor.

This page was last updated on 2/27/2013.