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Mo Li

Associate Professor, Bioscience

Principal Investigator

Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division
Technical Platform Membership: The Bioinformatics Platform
Email icon mo.li@kaust.edu.sa

We strive to decode the molecular blueprint of human regeneration through stem cell science and engineering, with the vision of transforming our understanding of healing into transformative therapies for the future. 

Program Affiliations

Center of Excellence

Biography

Professor Mo Li earned his B.S. from Peking University, China, and his Ph.D. from the University of Georgia, U.S., before training as a postdoc at the Salk Institute, U.S. His research focuses on modeling human diseases, human embryonic development, and regeneration using pluripotent stem cells, cellular reprogramming, and genome editing technologies. His lab develops novel nanopore sequencing methods for identifying mutations in genetic diseases, genome editing, and the aging process. To date, he has published 80 articles in prestigious journals, including Nature, Science, and the New England Journal of Medicine. His work has been featured in the New York Times and China Science and Technology Daily. He serves as an editorial board member of Communications Biology, Science China Life Sciences, Blood Science, and Life Medicine. 

Research Interests

Professor Li’s research attempts to understand the molecular basis of the regenerative mechanisms that maintain the proper form and function of the human body. His research programs build on a multidisciplinary platform that integrates stem cell models with genome engineering, functional genomics, bioengineering, and chemical screening to gain a holistic understanding of regeneration in its broadest sense, while keeping a commitment to fulfilling the translational promise of stem cell research.
Keyword tag icon
aging nanopore sequencing genetic disease genome editing genetic testing

Education Profile

  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Salk Institute for Biological Sciences, 2009

  • Ph.D., University of Georgia, 2007

  • B.Sc., Peking (Beijing) University, 2001

Publications

  • Fan, Z.; Li, Z.;  Jin, Y.; Chandrasekaran, A.P.; Shakir, I.; Zhang, Y.; Siddique, A.; Wang, M.; Zhou, X;, Tian, Y.; Wonka, P.*; Li, M.* (2025, July 11). deepBlastoid: A Deep Learning-Based High-Throughput Classifier for Human Blastoids Using Brightfield Images with Confidence Assessment. Life Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1093/lifemedi/lnaf026 

  • Bi, C., Yuan, B., Zhang, Y., Wang, M., Tian, Y., & Li, M.* (2025, January 20). Prevalent integration of genomic repetitive and regulatory elements and donor sequences at CRISPR-Cas9-induced breaks. Communications Biology. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-024-05965-5 

  • Zhang, Y., Bi, C., Nadeef, S., Maddirevula, S., Alqahtani, M., Alkuraya, F., & Li, M. (2024, July 23). NanoRanger enables rapid single base-pair resolution of genomic disorders. Med. 

  • Yuan, B., Bi, C., Tian, Y., Wang, J., Jin, Y., Alsayegh, K., Tehseen, M., Yi, G., Zhou, X., Shao, Y., Romero, F., Fischle, W., Izpisua Belmonte, J. C., Hamdan, S., Huang, Y., & Li, M.* (2024, April 29). Modulation of the microhomology-mediated end joining pathway suppresses large deletions and enhances homology-directed repair following CRISPR-Cas9-induced DNA breaks. BMC Biology. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-024-01888-7 

  • Chandrasekaran, A. P., & Li, M. (2024, February 1). Extra (embryonic) dialogues: Keys to improved stem cell-based embryo models. Cell Stem Cell. 

  • Bi, C., Wang, L., Fan, Y., Yuan, B., Ramos-Mandujano, G., Zhang, Y., Alsolami, S., Wang, J., Shao, Y., Reddy, P., Zhang, P.-Y., Huang, Y., Yu, Y., Izpisua Belmonte, J. C., & Li, M.* (2023, March 31). Single-cell individual full-length mtDNA sequencing uncovers unexpected heteroplasmy shifts in mtDNA editing. Nucleic Acids Research. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkad169 

  • Bi, C., Wang, L., Fan, Y., Yuan, B., Alsolami, S., Zhang, Y., Zhou, X., Zhang, P.-Y., Huang, Y., Yu, Y., Izpisua Belmonte, J. C., & Li, M.* (2023, April 4). Quantitative haplotype-resolved analysis of mtDNA heteroplasmy in human single oocytes, blastoids, and pluripotent stem cells. Nucleic Acids Research. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkad228 

  • Yuan, B., Zhou, X., Suzuki, K., Ramos-Mandujano, G., Wang, M., Tehseen, M., Cortes-Medina, L., Moresco, J. J., Dunn, S., Hernandez-Benitez, R., Hishida, T., Kim, N. Y., Andijani, M. M., Bi, C., Ku, M., Takahashi, Y., Xu, J., Qiu, J., Huang, L., Benner, C., Aizawa, E., Qu, J., Liu, G. H., Li, Z., Yi, F., Ghosheh, Y., Shao, C., Shokhirev, M., Comoli, P., Frassoni, F., Yates, J. R. III, Fu, X. D., Rodríguez Esteban, C., Hamdan, S., Izpisua Belmonte, J. C., & Li, M. (2022, June 25). Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein forms nuclear condensates and regulates alternative splicing. Nature Communications. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31302-5 

  • Fan, Y. §, Min, Z. §, Alsolami, S. M. §, Ma, Z., Zhang, E., Chen, W., Zhong, K., Pei, W., Kang, X., Zhang, P., Wang, Y., Zhang, Y., Zhan, L., Zhu, H., An, C., Li, R., Qiao, J., Tan, T., Li, M., & Yu, Y.* (2021). Generation of human blastocyst-like structures from pluripotent stem cells. Cell Discovery, 7, 81. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41421-021-00305-0 

  • Klein, S. G. §, Alsolami, S. M. §, Steckbauer, A., Arossa, S., Parry, A. J., Ramos Mandujano, G., Alsayegh, K., Izpisua Belmonte, J. C., Li, M., & Duarte, C. M.* (2021). A prevalent neglect of environmental control in mammalian cell culture calls for best practices. Nature Biomedical Engineering, 5, 563–567. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-021-00742-4 

Research Areas

  • Chemical and Biological Engineering

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