Yuqing Li, PhD

Dr. Yuqing Li joined the Department of Neurology in November of 2010 as a Professor. Dr. Li was recruited to the University of Florida by collaborating with Tyler’s Hope for a Dystonia Cure. His laboratory aims to unlock DYT-1 dystonia and to develop symptomatic therapies and cure approaches. Dr. Li is funded by multiple grants from the National Institutes of Health. Before the current position, Dr. Li served as Associate Professor of Neurology and Neurobiology in the Department of Neurology and Center for Neurodegeneration and Experimental Therapeutics, School of Medicine, the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Li served as an Assistant Professor with the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with his research in genetic analysis of neural development plasticity and animal models neurodevelopmental disorders. He was appointed Lucille P. Markey Assistant Professor of Molecular and Developmental Neuroscience in the Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology and the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was a Postdoctoral Research Associate with the Center for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He received his Ph.D. in Biology from Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan, and completed his Master of Science Training in molecular biology from Fudan University, China. He also obtained a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from Fudan University, China.

Dr. Li’s research is mainly focused on the pathophysiology and experimental therapeutics of dystonia, restless legs syndrome, ALS, Alzheimer’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease-related dementia. He is also broadly interested in animal models of movement disorders and molecular and cellular mechanisms of motor control circuits. His lab’s expertise is in performing genetic manipulations in mice, where specific neurons or circuits in the brain are altered during an animal’s lifespan. Dr. Li’s lab applies a multidisciplinary approach to analyze the mice, including genetic, biochemical, electrophysiological, behavioral, machine learning, and artificial intelligence techniques, to understand the pathogenesis of neurological disorders and develop effective treatments.