Jun Li, Ph.D.
Department of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, Division of Discovery Science
Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Assistant Professor, Department of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, Division of Discovery Science, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Education & Training
Degree-Granting Education
| 2013 | Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, CN, Computational Biology, Ph.D |
| 2008 | Wuhan University, Wuhan, CN, Mathematics, B.S |
Postgraduate Training
| 2013-2018 | Postdoctoral Fellow, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas |
Honors & Awards
| 2023 | MDACC UT SPORE in Lung Cancer CEP award, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2019 | Robert M. Chamberlain Distinguished Mentor Award Finalist, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2016 - 2017 | The Ben F. Love Fellowship in Innovative Cancer Therapies, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2012 | Huirui Fellowship, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences |
| 2012 | Trainee Research Day GSTPC Poster Contest Finalist, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2010 | Outstanding Student Scholarship, CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology |
| 2005 - 2006 | Outstanding Student Scholarship, Wuhan University |
Selected Presentations & Talks
Local Presentations
- 2025. DrBioRight 2.0: An LLM-Powered Bioinformatics Chatbot for Large-Scale Cancer Omics Analysis. Invited. Data Science Forum. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2025. DrBioRight 2.0: An LLM-Powered Bioinformatics Chatbotfor Large-Scale Cancer Functional Proteomics Analysis. Invited. BCB Seminar. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2024. An Expanded Quantitative Protein Expression Atlas of Human Cancers. Invited. BCB Seminar. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2023. RPPA results and beyond - The Cancer Proteome Atlas Portal (TCPA). Invited. RPPA Core 200K Milestone Celebration. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2022. The Cancer Proteome Atlas. Invited. Data Science Forum. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2022. Functional Genomics and Proteomics. Invited. BCB Seminar. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2015. TCPA: A resource for cancer functional proteomic data. Poster. iBRIGHT. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2015. TANRIC: An interactive open platform to explore the function of lncRNAs in cancer. Poster. iBRIGHT. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2015. TCPA: A Resource for Cancer Functional Proteomics Data. Conference. Society of Chinese Bioscientists in America - Texas Annual Symposium. Houston, TX, US.
- 2013. TCPA: A Resource for Cancer Functional Proteomics Data. Poster. Symposia on Cancer Research, US.
- 2012. SurvNet: a web server for identifying network-based biomarkers that most correlate with patient survival data. Conference. MD Anderson Trainee Research Day. Houston, Texas, US.
Regional Presentations
- 2016. A comprehensive proteogenomic characterization of human cancer cell lines. Conference. Society of Chinese Bioscientists in America - Texas Annual Symposium. Houston, TX, US.
- 2015. TANRIC: An Interactive Open Platform to Explore the Function of LncRNAs in Cancer. Poster. CPRIT’s 2015 Innovations in Cancer Prevention and Research Conference. Austin, TX, US.
- 2015. TANRIC: An interactive open platform to explore the function of lncRNAs in cancer. Poster. The Hallmarks of Cancer Symposium. Houston, TX, US.
National Presentations
- 2024. The Cancer Proteome Atlas: Expanded datasets and empowered with an AI-driven chatbot. Poster. AACR Annual Meeting, US.
- 2023. An Expanded Quantitative Protein Expression Atlas of Human Cancers. Poster. AACR Annual Meeting, US.
- 2022. DrBioRight: a next-generation analytics platform for analyzing omics data. Poster. ITCR Annual Meeting, US.
- 2022. TCPA: An open access resource for cancer functional proteomics data. Poster. ITCR Annual Meeting, US.
- 2021. TCPA: An Integrated Bioinformatics Resource for Functional Cancer Proteomic Data. Poster. ITCR Annual Meeting, US.
- 2021. A functional genomic approach to actionable gene fusions for precision oncology. Conference. OHSU site visit CTD2. Portland, OR, US.
- 2021. A natural language-oriented analytics platform for cancer omics data. Conference. GTC2021, US.
- 2020. An atlas of perturbed functional proteomics profiles of cancer cell lines. Poster. AACR 2020 Virtual Annual Meeing, US.
- 2020. DrOncoRight: A natural language-oriented analytics platform for cancer omics data. Conference. AACR 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting, US.
- 2020. TCPA: An Integrated Bioinformatics Resource for Functional Cancer Proteomic Data. Conference. ITCR Virtual Annual Meeting, US.
- 2020. An Atlas of Perturbed Functional Proteomics Profiles of Cancer Cell Lines. Invited. CTD2 Virtual Site Visit, US.
- 2019. TCPA Pan-cancer Analytic Module: Protein-centric Analysis of Multi-omics Data in Human Cancer. Conference. ITCR Annual Meeting. Park City, UT, US.
- 2019. Systematic Identification of Cancer Therapeutic Liabilities Through Adaptive Functional Proteomics. Poster. AACR 2019 Annual Meeting. Atlanta, GA, US.
- 2018. The Cancer Proteome Atlas. Conference. Big Data and Cancer Precision Medicine. Boston, MA, US.
- 2018. The Cancer Proteome Atlas. Poster. ITCR 2018 Annual Meeting. Bethesda, MD, US.
- 2018. Functional annotation of somatic mutations in cancers. Conference. CTD2 Teleconference. Portland, OR, US.
- 2017. The Cancer Proteome Atlas. Poster. ITCR 2017 Annual Meeting. Santa Cruz, CA, US.
- 2017. TCPA: A Resource for Cancer Functional Proteomics Data. Conference. Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing 2017. The big island, Hawaii, US.
- 2015. A systematic network-based approach to prioritizing lncRNA drivers in cancers. Poster. AACR Noncoding RNAs and Cancer conference. Boston, MA, US.
- 2014. TCPA: A Resource for Cancer Functional Proteomics Data. Poster. The Cancer Genome Atlas’ 3rd Annual Scientific Symposium. Bethesda, MD, US.
Formal Peers
- 2020. An Atlas of Perturbed Functional Proteomics Profiles of Cancer Cell Lines. Invited. Portland, OR, US.
Grant & Contract Support
| Date: | 2025 - 2027 |
| Title: | Proteomics-driven precision molecular mapping of patient tumors to preclinical models in lung cancer |
| Funding Source: | NIH/NCI |
| Role: | PI |
| ID: | 1R21CA288901-01A1 [Impact Score 17 (2%)] |
| Date: | 2023 - 2025 |
| Title: | Systematic identification of synthetic lethal interactions through functional proteomics |
| Funding Source: | UT MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| Role: | PI |
| ID: | 2023-00062105-Y1 |
| Date: | 2022 - 2027 |
| Title: | The Cancer Proteome Atlas: an Integrated Bioinformatics Resource for Functional Cancer Proteomic Data |
| Funding Source: | NCI |
| Role: | Co-I |
| ID: | 1 U24 CA 264128 - 01A1 |
| Date: | 2020 - 2027 |
| Title: | Barnhart Family Distinguished Professorship in Targeted Therapies |
| Funding Source: | Barnhart Family Distinguished Professorship |
| Role: | Collaborator |
| ID: | 600815-80-101635-50 |
| Date: | 2020 - 2025 |
| Title: | Characterization and modeling of m6A RNA methylation in cancer |
| Funding Source: | NIH/NCI |
| Role: | Co-I |
| ID: | 5 R01 CA 251150 - 03 |
| Date: | 2019 - 2026 |
| Title: | Cancer Center Support (CORE) Grant: RPPA Core GY45 CCSG |
| Funding Source: | The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| Role: | Collaborator |
| ID: | 5 P30 CA 016672 -04 |
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Liu W*, Li J*, Tang Y, Liu C, Song M, Ju Z, Kumar SV, Lu Y, Akbani R, Mills G, Liang H. DrBioRight 2.0: an LLM-powered bioinformatics chatbot for large-scale cancer functional proteomics analysis. Nature Communications, 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 40050282.
- Li J, Liu W, Kim H, Mojumdar K, Zhou Z, Ju Z, Kumar SV, Ng PK, Davies MA, Lu Y, Akbani R, Mills GB, Liang H. A protein expression atlas on tissue samples and cell lines from cancer patients provides insights into tumor heterogeneity and dependencies. Nature Cancer, 2024. e-Pub 2024. PMID: 39227745.
- Li J*, Lu H*, Ng PK*, Pantazi A*, Ip CKM, Jeong KJ, Amador B, Tran R, Tsang YH, Yang L, Song X, Dogruluk T, Ren X, Hadjipanayis A, Bristow CA, Lee S, Kucherlapati M, Parfenov M, Tang J, Seth S, Mahadeshwar HS, Mojumdar K, Zeng D, Zhang J, Protopopov A, Seidman JG, Creighton CJ, Lu Y, Sahni N, Shaw KR, Meric-Bernstam F, Futreal A, Chin L, Scott KL, Kucherlapati R, Mills GB, Liang H. A functional genomic approach to actionable gene fusions for precision oncology. Science Advances 8(6):eabm2382, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35138907.
- Li J, Chen H, Wang Y, Chen MM, Liang H. Next-Generation Analytics for Omics Data. Cancer Cell 39(1):3-6, 2021. e-Pub 2021. PMID: 32976776.
- Zhao W*, Li J*, Chen MM, Luo Y, Ju Z, Nesser NK, Johnson-Camacho K, Boniface CT, Lawrence Y, Pande NT, Davies MA, Herlyn M, Muranen T, Zervantonakis IK, von Euw E, Schultz A, Kumar SV, Korkut A, Spellman PT, Akbani R, Slamon DJ, Gray JW, Brugge JS, Lu Y, Mills GB, Liang H. Large-Scale Characterization of Drug Responses of Clinically Relevant Proteins in Cancer Cell Lines. Cancer Cell 38(6):829-843.e4, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 33157050.
- Chen MM, Li J, Wang Y, Akbani R, Lu Y, Mills GB, Liang H. TCPA v3.0: An Integrative Platform to Explore the Pan-cancer Analysis of Functional Proteomic Data. Molecular & Cellular Proteomics 18(8 suppl 1):S15-S25, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 31201206.
- Ng PK*, Li J*, Jeong KJ*, Shao S, Chen H, Tsang YH, Sengupta S, Wang Z, Bhavana VH, Tran R, Soewito S, Minussi DC, Moreno D, Kong K, Dogruluk T, Lu H, Gao J, Tokheim C, Zhou DC, Johnson AM, Zeng J, Ip CKM, Ju Z, Wester M, Yu S, Li Y, Vellano CP, Schultz N, Karchin R, Ding L, Lu Y, Cheung LWT, Chen K, Shaw KR, Meric-Bernstam F, Scott KL, Yi S, Sahni N, Liang H, Mills GB. Systematic Functional Annotation of Somatic Mutations in Cancer. Cancer Cell 33(3):450-462.e10, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 29533785.
- Li J, Akbani R, Zhao W, Lu Y, Weinstein JN, Mills GB, Liang H. Explore, Visualize, and Analyze Functional Cancer Proteomic Data Using the Cancer Proteome Atlas. Cancer Research 77(21):e51-e54, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 29092939.
- Li J, Zhao W, Akbani R, Liu W, Ju Z, Ling S, Vellano CP, Roebuck P, Yu Q, Eterovic AK, Byers LA, Davies MA, Deng W, Gopal YN, Chen G, von Euw EM, Slamon D, Conklin D, Heymach JV, Gazdar AF, Minna JD, Myers JN, Lu Y, Mills GB, Liang H. Characterization of Human Cancer Cell Lines by Reverse-phase Protein Arrays. Cancer Cell 31(2):225-239, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28196595.
- Li J, Han L, Roebuck P, Diao L, Liu L, Yuan Y, Weinstein JN, Liang H. TANRIC: An Interactive Open Platform to Explore the Function of lncRNAs in Cancer. Cancer Research 75(18):3728-37, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26208906.
- Li J, Lu Y, Akbani R, Ju Z, Roebuck PL, Liu W, Yang JY, Broom BM, Verhaak RG, Kane DW, Wakefield C, Weinstein JN, Mills GB, Liang H. TCPA: a resource for cancer functional proteomics data. Nature Methods 10(11):1046-7, 2013. e-Pub 2013. PMID: 24037243.
- Li J, Roebuck P, Grünewald S, Liang H. SurvNet: a web server for identifying network-based biomarkers that most correlate with patient survival data. Nucleic Acids Research 40(Web Server issue):W123-6, 2012. e-Pub 2012. PMID: 22570412.
Book Chapters
- Siwak DR, Li J, Akbani R, Liang H, Lu Y. Analytical Platforms 3: Processing Samples via the RPPA Pipeline to Generate Large-Scale Data for Clinical Studies. In: Adv Exp Med Biol. Springer, 113-147, 2019.
- Labrie M, Fang Y, Kendsersky ND, Li J, Liang H, Westin SN, Mitri Z, Mills GB. Using Reverse Phase Protein Array (RPPA) to Identify and Target Adaptive Resistance. In: Adv Exp Med Biol. Springer, 251-266, 2019.
Web Publications
- Li J, Liang H. FASMIC: An Integrated Bioinformatics Resource for Functional Annotation of Somatic Mutations in Cancer.
Patient Reviews
CV information above last modified August 18, 2025