Faculty profile

Bowen Li

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Associate ProfessorPharmaceutical SciencesUniversity of Toronto

Bowen Li

Associate Professor

Pharmaceutical Sciences

Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy

University of Toronto

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Canada Research Chair in RNA Vaccines and Therapeutics

Scholar ORCID

Supervision signals

Professors usually supervise graduate students in their department's programs.
31 publications in the last five years, latest in 2026.
Senior (last) author on 19 recent papers, a sign of leading a research group.
Principal investigator on 10 research grants (7 CIHR, 2 NSERC, 1 SSHRC), most recently in 2025.
Supervisor on 4 trainee awards (4 CIHR), most recently in 2026.

These signals come from public records, including CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC funding decisions. Ask the professor or the graduate program whether they are taking new students.

Academic metrics

Publications

Collaborators

Grants

Publications by year

Counts cover the publications linked to this profile. Citations and the h-index appear when the source records them.

Education

PhD, Bioengineering

Profiles and links

University Profile Personal Website Google Scholar iDORCID

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Signals and details

Research

Read how they describe their research on their University of Toronto profile.

Lipid Nanoparticles Nonviral Gene Delivery Biomaterials Circular Rna Gene Therapy Cystic Fibrosis Drug Delivery Acute Lung Injury

Latest papers

Nonviral delivery of chemically modified tRNA rescues nonsense mutations in cystic fibrosis.
Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2026 · senior author
Lipid nanoparticle-based multi-scale systemic immune programming for cancer therapy.
Molecular therapy : the journal of the American Society of Gene Therapy · 2026
From serendipity to rational design: Accelerating ionizable lipid discovery with LipidAI.
Acta pharmaceutica Sinica. B · 2026 · first author

All 31 publications

Latest funding

Chemical modification of mRNA for enhancing RNA therapeutics
CIHR · 2026 · Supervisor
$140,000
Gene augmentation to treat GRIN Neurodevelopmental Disorder
CIHR · 2026 · Co-investigator
$1,239,300
Whole organ gene editing for immunomodulation in lung transplantation
CIHR · 2025 · Principal investigator
$1,071,000

All 18 grants and awards

31 publications.

Nonviral delivery of chemically modified tRNA rescues nonsense mutations in cystic fibrosis.

Chen J, Zhou M, Dong S, Gong F, Tennakoon R, Seto BY, Chen ZR, Zhou ZP, Pan J, Xu Y, Luozhong S, Macarios CM, Tijaro-Bulla S, Gonska T, Hu J, Cui H, Li B

Science (New York, N.Y.)2026Senior author

DOI: 10.1126/science.aeb0054 PMID: 42658930

Lipid nanoparticle-based multi-scale systemic immune programming for cancer therapy.

Lin X, Li Y, Shen X, Li B, Xu Y

Molecular therapy : the journal of the American Society of Gene Therapy2026

DOI: 10.1016/j.ymthe.2026.08.007 PMID: 42576384

From serendipity to rational design: Accelerating ionizable lipid discovery with LipidAI.

Li B

Acta pharmaceutica Sinica. B2026First author

DOI: 10.1016/j.apsb.2026.07.035 PMID: 42592193

Safety risks of intratracheal lipid nanoparticle gene delivery to the lung and potential mitigation strategies.

Nagoya A, Nakajima K, Yune J, Wang A, Guan Z, Xu Y, Dong S, Strilchuk A, Li B, Juvet S, Cypel M, Liu M, Keshavjee S

The Journal of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery2026

DOI: 10.1016/j.jtcvs.2025.10.021 PMID: 41138809

A multiobjective AI model for LNP engineering enhances tissue-selective mRNA delivery.

Zhou M, Xu Y, Li G, Chen J, Savguira M, Seto B, Gong F, Thomson T, Chen J, Lu RXZ, Dong S, Chen D, Eileen C, Wu S, Zheng G, Li B

Nature biotechnology2026Senior author

DOI: 10.1038/s41587-026-03109-0 PMID: 42050330

Advancing regenerative medicine with RNA nanotechnology for chronic and end organ diseases.

Bakrania A, Nguyen Lefebvre AT, de Vries R, Laflamme MA, Jaeckel E, Hansen He H, Radvanyi L, Hedtrich S, Sahay G, Blakney A, Sefton M, Li B, Zheng G, Bhat M

Communications medicine2026

DOI: 10.1038/s43856-026-01476-y PMID: 41965828

Amino acid-derived ionizable lipids enable inhaled base editing for therapeutic gene correction in the lung.

Gong F, Xu Y, Chen J, Zhang S, Dong S, Healy L, Seto B, Zhou M, Lu RXZ, Li G, Thomson T, Tang Y, Chen Z, Antonio K, Varley A, Chen DXW, Hodges CA, Wong AP, Hu J, Hubbard BP, Engelhardt JF, Yan Z, Li B

Nature materials2026Senior author

DOI: 10.1038/s41563-026-02555-0 PMID: 41922838

LUMI-lab: A foundation model-driven autonomous platform enabling discovery of ionizable lipid designs for mRNA delivery.

Xu Y, Cui H, Pang K, Li G, Gong F, Dong S, Wang B, Li B

Cell2026Senior author

DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2026.01.012 PMID: 41742414

Harnessing artificial intelligence to advance CRISPR-based genome editing technologies.

Thomson T, Li G, Strilchuk A, Cui H, Wang B, Li B

Nature reviews. Genetics2026Senior author

DOI: 10.1038/s41576-025-00907-1 PMID: 41254174

RNA immunotherapy: revolutionizing cancer and autoimmune disease treatments.

Savguira M, Chen DXW, Dong S, Li B

Trends in molecular medicine2026Senior author

DOI: 10.1016/j.molmed.2025.06.008 PMID: 40653413

Chemical modification of mRNA for enhancing RNA therapeutics

SupervisorCIHR2026Fellowship: Canada Impact+ Research Training Awards - Postdoctoral

Principal investigators: Huang, Congcong

Keywords: Chemical Modification; Mrna Therapy; Stimulus Response

$140,000

Gene augmentation to treat GRIN Neurodevelopmental Disorder

Co-investigatorCIHR2026Project Grant

Principal investigators: Ramsey, Amy J

Keywords: Autism; Epilepsy; Gene Therapy; Intellectual Disability; Lipid Nanoparticle; Mouse Behaviour; Movement Disorder; Neurodevelopmental; Nmda Receptor; Rare Disease

$1,239,300

Whole organ gene editing for immunomodulation in lung transplantation

Principal investigatorCIHR2025Project Grant

Principal investigators: Keshavjee, Shaf; Juvet, Stephen C; Li, Bowen

Keywords: Acute Lung Injury; Chronic Rejection; Crispr; Ex Vivo Lung Perfusion; Gene Therapy; Interleukin (Il)-10; Lipid Nanoparticles; Lung Transplantation; Pre-Clinical Human Model; Whole Organ Gene Editing

$1,071,000

Prime Editing for the Therapeutic Correction of the Cystic Fibrosis G542X Mutation

SupervisorCIHR2025DRA : Canada Graduate Research Scholarship - Doctoral Program (CGRS D)

Principal investigators: Thomson, Tyler A

Keywords: Crispr; Cystic Fibrosis; Gene Editing; Gene Therapy; Lipid Nanoparticles; Lung Disease; Nucleic Acids; Prime Editing; Rna; Rna Therapeutics

$120,000

CRISPR and Artificial Intelligence-designed Retron (CAIR) System Enables Precise Gene Correction of CFTR Nonsense Mutations in Cystic Fibrosis

SupervisorCIHR2025DRA : Canada Graduate Research Scholarship - Doctoral Program (CGRS D)

Principal investigators: Gong, Fanglin

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence / Computational Biology; Cystic Fibrosis; Gene Editing; Lipid Nanoparticle; Protein Engineering

$120,000

Combinatorial Design of RNA Vaccines for HIV Broadly Neutrazling Antibody Induction

Nominated PICIHR2025Project Grant

Principal investigators: Li, Bowen

Keywords: Broadly Neutralizing Antibodies; Circular Rna; Hiv; Infectious Diseases; Lipid Nanoparticle; Rna Vaccines

$1,147,500

Computationally Engineered Mucosal circRNA Vaccine with ATRA Adjuvant for Broad HIV-1 Protection.

SupervisorCIHR2024Doctoral Research Award - Priority Announcement - HIV/AIDS and/or STBBI

Principal investigators: Selim, Alaa S

Keywords: Atra-Adjuvant; Broadly Neutralizing Antibodies (Bnabs); Cd8+ And Cd4+ T-Cell Activation; Circular Rnas (Circrna) Vaccines; Humanized Mice (Hu-Hsc); Immunoinformatic Analysis; Infectious Diseases (Hiv-1); Lipid Nanoparticle (Lnp); Mucosal Barriers; Women And Lgbtq+ Community

$120,000

Genetic Engineering of Lungs to Create Universal Blood Type Donor Organs

Co-investigatorCIHR2024Project Grant

Principal investigators: Cypel, Marcelo; Wang, Aizhou

Keywords: Abo Incompatible Transplant; Crispr; Ex Vivo Lung Perfusion; Genome Editing; Lung Transplantation; Organ Engineering

$1,101,600

Nonviral Delivery of tRNA Therapeutics for Treating Cystic Fibrosis

Nominated PICIHR2024Project Grant

Principal investigators: Li, Bowen

Keywords: Cystic Fibrosis; Gene Therapy; Lipid Nanoparticles; Nonviral Gene Delivery; Rna Medicine; Trna Biology

$1,136,026

Uncovering the role of physiologically relevant biliary signaling in engineering 3D bile duct tubes with human pluripotent stem cell-derived cholangiocytes

Co-investigatorCIHR2024Project Grant

Principal investigators: Ogawa, Shinichiro; Zhang, Boyang

Keywords: Biliary Disease; Cholangiopathies; Cystic Fibrosis; Cystic Fibrosis Related Liver Disease; Liver Disease

$986,850

From CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC funding decisions: CIHR since 2008, NSERC since 1991 and SSHRC since 1998, including their latest published competition results.

Profile data last refreshed on September 25, 2026 from the university directory, publication records and CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC funding.

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Bowen Li

Research

Latest papers

Latest funding

Nonviral delivery of chemically modified tRNA rescues nonsense mutations in cystic fibrosis.

Lipid nanoparticle-based multi-scale systemic immune programming for cancer therapy.

From serendipity to rational design: Accelerating ionizable lipid discovery with LipidAI.

Safety risks of intratracheal lipid nanoparticle gene delivery to the lung and potential mitigation strategies.

A multiobjective AI model for LNP engineering enhances tissue-selective mRNA delivery.

Advancing regenerative medicine with RNA nanotechnology for chronic and end organ diseases.

Amino acid-derived ionizable lipids enable inhaled base editing for therapeutic gene correction in the lung.

LUMI-lab: A foundation model-driven autonomous platform enabling discovery of ionizable lipid designs for mRNA delivery.

Harnessing artificial intelligence to advance CRISPR-based genome editing technologies.

RNA immunotherapy: revolutionizing cancer and autoimmune disease treatments.

Frequent collaborators

Gang Zheng

BO WANG

Haissi Cui

Jim Hu

Aizhou Wang

Andrew Baker

Marcelo Cypel

Michael Sefton

Agostino Pierro

Stephen Juvet

Mamatha Bhat

Sarah Hedtrich

Tanja Gonska

Milica Radisic

Anna Blakney

Shaf Keshavjee

Mingyao Liu