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Dept. of Pediatrics > Section Detail > Faculty Detail
Richard Li
, MD , PhD
Assistant Professor
Sleep Medicine

Contact Information

(773) 702-6832 — Phone
(773) 702-6888 — Fax
rli@peds.bsd.uchicago.edu

Selected Publications

View a partial list of Richard Li’s publications through the National Library of Medicine's PubMed online database

Research Interests

Richard Li, MD, PhD, is a dually trained scientist. After receiving his medical degree from Tongji Medical University in China, he completed a residency and clinical fellowship in internal medicine at Tonji Hospital. As a further pursuit of his academic career, he then earned a master’s degree in pharmacology and subsequently a PhD in molecular physiology at the University of Muenster, Germany. Later, Dr. Li trained as a postdoctoral fellow in molecular cardiology in Dr. Roberto Bolli’ lab at the University of Louisville with a full fellowship support from American Heart Association (AHA). He joined Dr. David Gozal’s research team to investigate the obstructive sleep apnea (OSA)-associated neurobehavioral disorders at the Kosair Children’s Hospital Research Institute in 2002. Dr. Li joined the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Chicago in 2009.

Dr. Li has broad research interests in the fields of cardiovascular disease and sleep disorders. Recent years, he has concentrated on sleep-associated neurological disorders, cerebral ischemia, and oxidative stress. Meanwhile, he has been working on a project to elucidate the neuroprotective role of neuroglobin (Ngb) against cerebral ischemia/reperfusion: Most recently, he has re-focused his major efforts on investigating the cardiovascular complications associated with OSA. Basically, his research efforts is to try to gain the insights into the role of monocytes and endothelia cells in OSA-associated atherosclerosis and endothelial dysfunction using established co-culture cellular model and animal models of intermitted hypoxia and sleep fragmentation. Ultimately, better understanding of OSA-associate cardiovascular consequences and its underlined mechanism may lead to developing novel strategies aimed at preventing or treating the OSA-associated cardiovascular complications.

Some highlights of Dr. Li’s research:
1. Ngb overexpression protects neurons from ischemic injury.
2. IH promotes foam cell formation and accelerates atherosclerotic lesion formation.

Currently, Dr. Li’s research is supported by AHA.  He is an ad hoc reviewer for scientific journals including BBA-Molecular Cell Research, Brain Research, Brain research Bulletin, Journal of Neurochemistry,  Journal of Neuroscience Research, Neuroscience Letter, Sleep.