Professor Li, the vice Dean (Education and Learning) of School of Chinese Medicine (SCM) and the Director of Mr. & Mrs. Ko Chi Ming Centre for Parkinson's Disease Research (CPDR), was appointed as the "Ma Pak Leung Endowed Professor in Innovative Neuromedicine" starting in February of this year. This “Endowed Professorship” recognizes outstanding scholars who have achieved remarkable accomplishments in the field of innovative neuromedicine.

Since joining SCM in 2001, Professor Li has been leading research in the field of neurology, with particular emphasis on traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). In 2023, she was recognized as one of the top 2% scientists globally by Stanford University. Professor Li leads her research team to combine modern molecular biology research techniques with traditional Chinese medicine and modern therapeutic approaches, pioneering new strategies for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. By integrating Eastern and Western medicine, Professor Li has resulted in 16 patents and over 400 scientific research papers. One of her research projects focuses on screening and identifying transcription factor EB (TFEB) agonists from Chinese herbal medicine. This project has successfully discovered a novel TFEB agonist curcumin C1 from a series of curcumin derivatives. They found that curcumin C1 can effectively promote Autophagy-Lysosome-Pathway (ALP) in neuronal cells and animal models of PD and AD, thus facilitating the degradation and clearance of harmful neuronal proteins such as alpha-synuclein, amyloid beta and phosphorylated tau. This finding brings hope to improve the symptoms of patients with neurodegenerative diseases and enhance their quality of life.

As the Director of CPDR, Professor Li has secured approximately 36 million HKD in research funding from 16 competitive research projects, not only bringing hope to patients but also inspiring a new generation of young students and researchers aspiring to Chinese medicine research.

The school sincerely appreciates the generous support of Ma Pak Leung Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and congratulates Professor Li on this prestigious honor, which is a full recognition of her long-term dedication and contributions to the field of neurology.