Gaopeng Li, PhD, a "Hundred Talents Program Researcher" at Zhejiang University, a recipient of the National High-level Young Talents Program, a Principal Investigator, and a doctoral supervisor employed by the Institute of Translational Medicine and Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine. He has long been committed to exploring the mechanisms of resistance to tumor immunotherapy and targeted therapy, and comprehensively uses molecular and cellular biology, tumor immunology, small animal models, high-throughput data analysis, and clinical sample research to address clinical problems and interpret clinical perplexities. He has published multiple papers as the first /corresponding author in journals such as Cancer Cell, Nature Cell Biology, Cell Research, and Nature Cancer, and his research work has been highlighted and reviewed in journals such as Cancer Cell, Nature Cell Biology, Cell Metabolism, and Trends in Immunology.
Work Experience
2023 – Present: Principal Investigator, Institute of Translational Medicine, Zhejiang University
2021 – 2023: Research Investigator, University of Michigan Medical School, USA
2016 – 2021: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Michigan Medical School, USA
2015 – 2016: Assistant Researcher, School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China
Education
2008 – 2015: Ph.D. in Cell Biology, School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China
2004 – 2008: Bachelor in Biological Sciences, School of Life Sciences, Henan University
Research Areas
1. Tumor Immunology
2. Tumor Metabolism
3. RNA Biology
Research Direction
We have systematically explored the mechanisms of failure in cancer immunotherapy and targeted therapy from multiple perspectives, and have pioneered the discovery of new mechanisms by which RNA and energy metabolism regulate tumor cell drug response. We first revealed the mechanism by which energy metabolism regulates the "hyperprogression" of cancer in immunotherapy and discovered that targeting tumor metabolism can block immune signal-induced oncogene activation and "hyperprogression", opening up new avenues for unraveling the clinical perplexities of cancer immunotherapy (Cancer Cell, 2023). We first discovered the important role of long non-coding RNA in enhancing tumor antigen presentation and overcoming resistance to cancer immunotherapy, demonstrating a new perspective on enhancing tumor immunogenicity using RNA (Nat Cell Biol, 2021). We first proposed the concept of "microRNA enhancer" and discovered the important role of endogenous double-stranded RNA in overcoming resistance to cancer targeted therapy (Cell Res, 2016). In the future, the laboratory plans to further explore the mechanisms by which energy metabolism pathways and RNA-related signaling pathways cooperatively regulate cancer immunoreactivity, hoping to develop new theories and directions, discover new targets and drugs, and provide a preclinical research basis for tumor immunotherapy.
