Speakers

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Leanne Li
  • The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK
Lung cancer and the nervous system
Role Speaker
Date & Time 05/02 14:15 - 15:05
Room 701D
Education / Training
2008, M.D., National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC
2014, PhD., École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
Professional and Research Experience
2015 - 2020, Postdoctoral Fellow, Koch Institute of Cancer Research, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
2020 - Present, Group Leader, The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK
Awards & Honors
Cancer Grand Challenges: The Nervous System and Cancer. Team Lead for InteroCANCEption
2025 Mark Foundation Endeavour Award Finalist, Lead PI (finalist)
2022 European Research Council Starting Grant [Project reviewed and awarded by the ERC reviewing committee; related grant received and managed by UKRI through the Horizon Europe guarantee funding scheme] – Cancer Neuroscience: Systematic dissection of the crosstalk between cancer and the nervous system.
Selected Publications
  • 1. Ho, Y., Bregni, G., Stazi, M., Peinado, P., Chen, P., Ballabio, C., Boulat, V., Guan, Y., Liu, Z., Alonso de la Vega, A., Vadera, S., Wang, L., Ho, C., Veiga-Fernandes, H., Downward, J., Hsieh, M., Kopanitsa, M., Kassiotis, G., Tsantoulas, C., Margineanu, Calado, D., M., Chiu, I., Swanton, C., Chen, C., Li, L. Sensory innervation suppresses tertiary lymphoid structure formation to promote lung cancer progression. (In revision, Cell)
  • 2. Peinado, P., Stazi, M., Ballabio, C., Margineanu, M., Li, Z., Colón, C. I., M. B., Hsieh, Choudhuri, S., Stanstny, V., Hamilton, S., Le Marois, A., Collingridge, J., Conrad, L., Chen, Y., Ng, S. R., Magendantz, M., Buktar, A., Chen, J., Sahai, E., Drapkin, B.J., Jacks, T., Vander Heiden, M. G., Kopanitsa, M., Robinson H. P. C., Li, L. Intrinsic electrical activity drives small-cell lung cancer progression. Nature (2025) 639: 765–775. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-08575-7
  • 3. Hajal, C., Shin, Y., Li, L., Serrano, J. C., Jacks, T., & Kamm, R. D. The CCL2-CCR2 astrocyte-cancer cell axis in tumor extravasation at the brain. Science Advances (2021) 7: eabg8139. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abg8139
  • 4. Romero, R., Sánchez-Rivera, F. J., Westcott, P. M. K., Mercer, K. L., Bhutkar, A., Muir, A., González Robles, T. J., Lamboy Rodríguez, S., Liao, L. Z., Ng, S. R., Li, L., Colón, C. I., Naranjo, S., Beytagh, M. C., Lewis, C. A., Hsu, P. P., Bronson, R. T., Vander Heiden, M. G., & Jacks, T. Keap1 mutation renders lung adenocarcinomas dependent on Slc33a1. Nature Cancer (2020) 1: 589–602. doi: 10.1038/s43018-020-0071-1
  • 5. Li, L.*, Ng, S. R.*, Colón, C. I., Drapkin, B. J., Hsu, P. P., Li, Z., Nabel, C. S., Lewis, C. A., Romero, R., Mercer, K. L., Bhutkar, A., Phat, S., Myers, D. T., Muzumdar, M. D., Westcott, P. M. K., Beytagh, M. C., Farago, A. F., Vander Heiden, M. G., Dyson, N. J., & Jacks, T. Identification of DHODH as a therapeutic target in small cell lung cancer. Science Translational Medicine (2019) 11: eaaw7852. (*Equal contribution). doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aaw7852.