Introduction

Dr. Li received his Master degree from Kunming Institute of Zoology (Chinese Academy of Science) and his Ph.D. degree from Université Laval, Canada. He previously worked on non-huma primate models of depression disorder and a rat model of binge eating disorder. In these monkey studies, it was found that high level of system cortisol and high level of INF-αin the central nervous system was sufficient to induce remarkable depression in monkeys, which could also be targeted for the treatment of depression disorders in patients. In the study of binge eating disorder, it was found that deficient adaptiveness in some key brain regions, such as the nucleus accumbens and medial prefrontal cortex, is likely underlying the compulsive eating in the binge-like eating rats, as well as patients suffering from binge eating disorder.

Dr. Li is currently working in the lab of Prof. Chen on reprograming astrocytes into functional neurons via overexpression of transcription factors (TFs) such as NeuroD1, Dlx2 and Ascl1 in non-human primate model of ischemic stroke. His studies focus on searching for an optimal combination of virus and TFs, as well as proper virus titers and doses, to regenerate sufficient neurons of right subtypes in specific brain regions. He is also trying to see the reconstruction of neural circuits with fMOST after the astrocyte-to-neuron (AtN) conversion in both rodent and non-human primate animals.

Selected recent publications

1)  (1)   Qin, Dongdong, Chu, Xunxun, Feng, Xiaoli, Li, Zhifei, Yang, Shangchuan, Lü, Longbao, Yang, Qing, Pan, Lei, Yin, Yong and Li, Jiali (2015). The first observation of seasonal affective disorder symptoms in Rhesus macaque. Behavioural brain research 292: 463-469. (Qin et al., 2015a;Qin et al., 2019)

2)   (2)   Qin, Dongdong, Rizak, Joshua, Chu, Xunxun, Li, Zhifei, Yang, Shangchuan, Lü, Longbao, Yang, Lichuan, Yang, Qing, Yang, Bo and Pan, Lei. (2015). A spontaneous depressive pattern in adult female rhesus macaques. Scientific reports 5: 11267.

3)   (3)Feng, Xiaoli, Wu, Xujun, Morrill, Ryan J, Li, Zhifei, Li, Chunlu, Yang, Shangchuan, Li, Zhaoxia, Cui, Ding, Lv, Longbao and Hu, Zhengfei. (2016). Social correlates of the dominance rank and long-term cortisol levels in adolescent and adult male rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). Scientific reports 6: 25431. (Qin et al., 2015b;Feng et al., 2016)(Qin et al., 2015b;Feng et al., 2016)

4)   (4) Sun, Yong‐Mei, Chen, Rong‐Xiang, Li, Zhi‐Fei, Spijker, Sabine, Zhai, Rong‐Wei and Yang, Shang‐Chuan. (2018). The caudal part of the posterior insula of rats participates in the maintenance but not the acquisition of morphine conditioned place preference. CNS neuroscience & therapeutics 24(5): 420-428.

5)    (5)  Qin, Dongdong, Li, Zhifei, (Joint first author） Li, Zhaoxia, Wang, Limin, Hu, Zhengfei, Lü, Longbao, Wang, Zhengbo and Hu, Xintian Qin (2019). Chronic glucocorticoid exposure induces depression-like phenotype in rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta). Frontiers in neuroscience 13: 188.

6)   (6) Li, Zhifei, Li, Zhaoxia, Lv, Xiaoman, Li, Zhaofu, Xiong, Lei, Hu, Xintian and Qin, Dongdong(2020) Intracerebroventricular Administration of Interferon-Alpha Induced Depressive-Like Behaviors and Neurotransmitter Changes in Rhesus Monkeys. Frontiers in Neuroscience 14, 1171.

7)    (7) Li, Zhi Fei, Chometton, Sandrine, Guèvremont, Geneviève, Timofeeva, Elena and Timofeev, Igor (2021). Compulsive Eating in a Rat Model of Binge Eating Disorder Under Conditioned Fear and Exploration of Neural Mechanisms With c-fos mRNA Expression. Frontiers in Neuroscience 15.