Jiahe Li
Assistant Professor, Bioengineering
Contact
- jiah.li@northeastern.edu
- For package delivery by UPS, USPS or Fedex: Jiahe Li (ISEC 225), 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115
For visiting our lab: ISEC 225, 805 Columbus Ave, Boston, MA, 02115
Office
- 225 ISEC
- 617.373.3233
Related Links
Research Focus
Oral vaccine, host and oral microbiome interactions, microbiome engineering, and protein engineering-based cancer immunotherapy
Education
- Post-doc, David Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2015-2018
- PhD, Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University, 2009-2015
- BS, Microbiology, China Agricultural University, 2005-2009
Honors & Awards
- 2023 NSF CAREER
- 2021 NIBIB Trailblazer Award
- 2021 Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program, Idea Award, Department of Defense
- 2020 Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program, Discovery Award, Department of Defense
- 2018 Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program, Discovery Award, Department of Defense
- 2016 David Koch Institute Quinquennial Postdoctoral Fellowship
Teaching Interests
BioE 3210 Bioelectricity
BioE 5820 Biomaterials
Professional Affiliations
- Biomedical Engineering Society
- American Institute of Chemical Engineers
- American Chemical Society
Research Overview
Oral vaccine, host and oral microbiome interactions, microbiome engineering, and protein engineering-based cancer immunotherapy
The Advanced Therapeutics Lab
The Li research group in the Department of Bioengineering at Northeastern University focuses on the development of molecular and live cell-based therapeutics, with a major emphasis on the use of bioconjugation chemistry, synthetic biology, and microbiology to interrogate and manipulate interactions between therapeutics, the microbiome, and host.
Selected Research Projects
- Understanding and Harnessing Host-derived Small RNAs Against Opportunistic Pathogens
- PI, National Science Foundation
Department Research Areas
Selected Publications
After transitioning to the PI in 2019
- Sun X, Yang S, Al-Dossary AA, Broitman S, Ni Y, Guan M, Yang M, Li J*. Nanobody-Functionalized Cellulose for Capturing SARS-CoV-2, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 2022. https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/aem.02303-21
- Sun X, Ni Y, He Y, Yang M, , 2021. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adtp.202170017 , , Li J*. Engineering the Immune Adaptor Protein STING as a Functional Carrier, Advanced Therapeutics
- Al-Dossary A, Tawfik AE, Isichei AC, Sun X, Li J, Alshehri AA, Alomari M, Almughem FA, Aldossary AM, Sabit H, and Almalik AM. Engineered EVs Mimetic Nanoparticles as Therapeutic Delivery Vehicles for High-grade Serous Ovarian Cancer, Cancers 2021, 13(12), 3075; https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6694/13/12/3075
- Sun X, Hay I, Doran P, Basireddy S, Scott M, Wu Y, Al-Dossary AA, Li J*. Systemic Drug Delivery Strategies, 1st Edition, Volume 2: Delivery Strategies and Engineering Technologies in Cancer Immunotherapy. 2021. https://www.elsevier.com/books/systemic-drug-delivery-strategies/amiji/978-0-323-85781-9.
- Cancer Research, 2021. https://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/canres/early/2021/05/10/0008-5472.CAN-20-1799.full.pdf
- He Y, Hong C, Irvine DJ, Li J*, Hammond PT*. In vitro STING Activation with the cGAMP-STINGΔTM Signaling Complex, Bio-protocol, 2021. https://bio-protocol.org/e3905
- Zhao H, Li T, Gu Z, Liu C, Li J, Yang D. Intralysosomal environment-responsive metal-organic framework for microRNA delivery and synergetic gene/chemodynamic therapy of triple-negative breast cancer, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2021. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsami.0c21006
- Zhang X, Al-Dossary A, Hussain M, Setlow P, Li J*. Applications of Bacillus subtilis Spores in Biotechnology and Advanced Materials, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 2020. https://aem.asm.org/content/early/2020/06/29/AEM.01096-20
- He Y, Hong C, Yan Z.E, Li Y, Zhu G, Yang M, Li Y, Sun X, Irvine DJ, Li J*, Hammond PT*. Self-Assembled cGAMP-STING ΔTM Signaling Complex as a Bioinspired Platform for cGAMP Delivery, Science Advances, 2020. https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/24/eaba7589
- Yang M, Zhu G, George K, Sun X, Setlow P, Li J*. Engineering Bacillus subtilis as a Versatile and Stable Platform for Production of Nanobodies, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 2020 Apr 1;86(8). https://aem.asm.org/content/86/8/e02938-19
Before transitioning to the PI in 2019
- Ludwicki MB, Li J, Stephens EA, Roberts RW, Koide S, Hammond PT, DeLisa MP. Broad-Spectrum Proteome Editing with an Engineered Bacterial Ubiquitin Ligase Mimic. ACS Cent Sci. 2019 May 22;5(5):852-866.
- Li J, He Y, Wang W, Wu C, Hong C, Hammond PT. Polyamine-Mediated Stoichiometric Assembly of Ribonucleoproteins for Enhanced mRNA Delivery. Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English). 2017; 56(44):13709-13712.
- Li J, Wang W, He Y, Li Y, Yan EZ, Zhang K, Irvine DJ, Hammond PT. Structurally Programmed Assembly of Translation Initiation Nanoplex for Superior mRNA Delivery. ACS Nano. 2017 Mar 28;11(3):2531-2544.

Jan 18, 2023
NSF CAREER Award for Examining sRNAs as Potential Disease Prevention
Jiahe Li, BioE assistant professor, has been awarded a $636,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award, titled “Understanding and Harnessing Host-derived Small RNAs Against Opportunistic Pathogens,” to learn how to harness one of the body’s natural defense mechanisms to inhibit bad bacteria.

Jul 21, 2022
Li Receives Grant to Protect Against Poultry Diseases
The laboratory of BioE Assistant Professor JIahe Li received an industry grant from Eco Animal Science in the United Kingdom, one of the largest global animal health companies, to develop genetically modified probiotics against enteric diseases in poultry.
Oct 12, 2021
Announcing Fall 2021 PEAK Experiences Awardees
Several engineering students and science students mentored by COE faculty are recipients of Northeastern’s Fall 2021 PEAK Experiences Awards. The PEAK Experiences Awards are a progressively structured sequence of opportunities designed to support learners as they continue climbing to new heights of achievement in undergraduate research and creative endeavor throughout their Northeastern journeys. ASCENT AWARDS […]
Oct 16, 2020
COE Faculty Awarded Seed Funding in Collaboration with University of Maine
BioE Assistant Professors Jiahe Li and Mingyang Lu, ECE Professor & Chair Srinivas Tadigadapa, ECE Assistant Professors Sarah Ostadabbas and Xue “Shelley” Lin, and ECE Associate Research Scientist Ataur Katebi were among the faculty chosen for five competitive collaborative research projects with the University of Maine in the areas of artificial intelligence, earth and climate sciences, health and life sciences, manufacturing, and marine sciences.

Oct 01, 2020
Assuring that Self-Driving Cars are Accessible to Those with Disabilities
ECE Assistant Professor Xue “Shelley” Lin is working with the algorithms in self-driving vehicles to ensure that they will be accessible to those with disabilities.
Apr 11, 2020
FY21 TIER 1 Award Recipients
Congratulations to the 19 COE faculty and affiliates who were recipients of FY21 TIER 1 Interdisciplinary Research Seed Grants for 13 different projects.

Aug 20, 2019
Bajpayee Awarded NIH Trailblazer R21 Grant
BioE Assistant Professor Ambika Bajpayee(PI) and Jiahe Li (co-PI) were awarded a $628K NIH Trailblazer grant from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering for “Anti-Catabolic Drug Anchored Cationic Exosomes For Cartilage Targeting And Repair”.
Apr 09, 2019
FY20 TIER 1 Award Recipients
25 COE faculty and affiliates were recipients of FY20 TIER 1 Interdisciplinary Research Seed Grants for 18 different projects representing up to $900K dollars of investment in research.

Jan 04, 2019
New Faculty Spotlight: Jiahe Li
Jiahe Li joins the Bioengineering department in January 2019 as an Assistant Professor.