Faculty profile

Yun Li

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Associate ProfessorDepartment of Molecular GeneticsUniversity of Toronto

Yun Li

Associate Professor

Department of Molecular Genetics

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

University of Toronto

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Supervision signals

Professors usually supervise graduate students in their department's programs.
20 publications in the last five years, latest in 2026.
Senior (last) author on 10 recent papers, a sign of leading a research group.
Principal investigator on 6 research grants (3 CIHR, 3 NSERC), 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.

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Collaborators

Grants

Publications by year

Counts cover the works listed on the university profile; citation counts come from Dimensions.

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Research

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

Brain Diseases Gene Editing Growth Factors Organoids Brain Disorder Crispr Pluripotent Stem Cell Models Pten

Latest papers

Disrupted PQBP1-HNRNPU-LINE-1 axis underlies aberrant neurodevelopment in renpenning syndrome.
Molecular psychiatry · 2026
HOPX regulates the development and lineage progression of human stem cell-derived outer radial glia-like cells.
Stem cell reports · 2026 · senior author
Long-read proteogenomic atlas of human neuronal differentiation reveals isoform diversity informing neurodevelopmental risk mechanisms.
Nature communications · 2026

All 24 publications

Latest funding

Investigating the molecular pathogenesis of PTEN-related neurodevelopmental disorders and developing therapeutic strategies using human neural models
CIHR · 2026 · Nominated PI
$1,028,926
Prize 202203PJT - The role of outer radial glia in human brain expansion and cortical malformation disorders.
CIHR · 2022 · Nominated PI
$30,000
The role of outer radial glia in human brain expansion and cortical malformation disorders.
CIHR · 2021 · Nominated PI
$933,300

All 6 grants and awards

24 publications.

Disrupted PQBP1-HNRNPU-LINE-1 axis underlies aberrant neurodevelopment in renpenning syndrome.

Zhang J, Qu W, Cheng X, Li L, Li Y, Li S, Ye L, Yu L, Li Y, Jiang P, Jiang X, Xu J, Zou C, Shu Q, Li X

Molecular psychiatry2026

DOI: 10.1038/s41380-026-03908-6 PMID: 42786260

HOPX regulates the development and lineage progression of human stem cell-derived outer radial glia-like cells.

Dong XX, Choi WWY, Ahmed M, Nishimura H, Tian A, Millar D, Bhattacharya A, Aggarwal A, Vu L, Weng OY, Nguyen R, Chakraborty P, Wang LY, Wilson MD, Shu Q, Li X, Wu YC, Muffat J, Li Y

Stem cell reports2026Senior author

DOI: 10.1016/j.stemcr.2026.103087 PMID: 42785308

Long-read proteogenomic atlas of human neuronal differentiation reveals isoform diversity informing neurodevelopmental risk mechanisms.

Xu N, Rynard KM, Radley E, Tian A, Arshad M, Long C, Ly J, Luo H, Hogan E, Fafouti ME, Davie M, Naimi F, Li Y, Calarco JA, Trost B, Muffat J, Lee HO, Lipshitz HD, Smibert CA, Tripathy SJ

Nature communications2026

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-76675-1 PMID: 42680762

Understanding Human Cortical Expansion Using Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Brain Organoids: Insights Into Progenitor Evolution and Diversity.

Choi WWY, Muffat J, Li Y

Journal of neurochemistry2026Senior author

DOI: 10.1111/jnc.70527 PMID: 42478603

Cell type-agnostic transcriptomic signatures enable uniform comparisons of neural maturation.

Venkatesan S, Werner JM, Li Y, Gillis J

PLoS biology2026

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003757 PMID: 41984978

Androgen activity in the male embryonic hindbrain drives lethal PFA ependymoma.

Zhang J, Ong W, Rasnitsyn A, Gonzalez RD, Lopez Gutierrez R, Balin P, Saadeldin A, Wu X, Vladoiu MC, Santa-Maria Lopez V, Gonzalez-Salinas F, Yadav N, Mohanakrishnan D, Boosi Narayana Rao K, Mooli RGR, Najem H, Pacheco S, Kharas K, Richman C, Przelicki D, Wang EY, Su H, Curry RN, Yang R, Kameda-Smith MM, Livingston B, Scott D, Luo Z, Xia M, Abeysundara N, Erickson AW, Mankahla N, Hu LZ, Pan C, Suarez R, Huang N, Wu Y, Wang H, Douglas T, Pallota J, Hébert S, Ng K, Mantione K, Whetstone H, Maan H, Lakkis H, Lee J, Ramakrishnan SK, Pei Y, Tang Y, Lin FY, Aldave G, Gallo M, Friedlander RM, Notta F, Donovan LK, Chintagumpala M, Wang B, Li Y, De Carvalho DD, Zhang Z, Mao Y, Hua W, Eberhart C, Lucas CG, Venneti S, Sorensen PH, Delaidelli A, Li H, Zhou W, Kirk J, Tang DG, Jiang T, Liu H, Lathia JD, Suzuki H, Rich JN, Stein LD, Jabado N, Ramaswamy V, Lu QR, Heimberger AB, Daniels C, Michealraj KA, Kleinman CL, Taylor MD

Nature2026

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10264-6 PMID: 41882358

mTORC1 and mTORC2 synergy in human neural development, disease, and regeneration.

Dhaliwal NK, Muffat J, Li Y

Neural regeneration research2026Senior author

DOI: 10.4103/nrr.nrr-d-24-00961 PMID: 40146001

ARP2/3 complex mediates the neuropathology of PTEN-deficient human neural cells downstream of mTORC1 and mTORC2 hyperactivation.

Dhaliwal NK, Weng OY, Tian A, Aggarwal A, Ahmed M, Sun G, Bhattacharya A, Choi WWY, Nishimura H, Chakraborty P, Dong X, Wu Y, Wilson MD, Wang LY, Parada LF, Muffat J, Li Y

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2026Senior author

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2523367123 PMID: 41678301

Long-read proteogenomic atlas of human neuronal differentiation reveals isoform diversity informing neurodevelopmental risk mechanisms.

Xu N, Rynard KM, Radley E, Tian A, Arshad M, Long C, Ly J, Luo H, Hogan E, Fafouti ME, Davie M, Naimi F, Li Y, Calarco JA, Trost B, Muffat J, Lee HO, Lipshitz HD, Smibert CA, Tripathy SJ

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology2025

DOI: 10.64898/2025.12.16.693263 PMID: 41446062

LncRNA CISTR-ACT regulates cell size in human and mouse by guiding FOSL2.

Kiriakopulos K, Soleimanpour K, McMurray BJ, Moke BI, Chalmers JJ, Mokhtaridoost M, Newton JD, De Young T, Delfosse K, Ahmed M, Wong CJ, Stricker S, Li Y, Nieman BJ, Gingras AC, Justice MJ, Lefebvre JL, Maass PG

Nature communications2025

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-67591-x PMID: 41397992

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

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Yun Li

Research

Latest papers

Latest funding

Disrupted PQBP1-HNRNPU-LINE-1 axis underlies aberrant neurodevelopment in renpenning syndrome.

HOPX regulates the development and lineage progression of human stem cell-derived outer radial glia-like cells.

Long-read proteogenomic atlas of human neuronal differentiation reveals isoform diversity informing neurodevelopmental risk mechanisms.

Understanding Human Cortical Expansion Using Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Brain Organoids: Insights Into Progenitor Evolution and Diversity.

Cell type-agnostic transcriptomic signatures enable uniform comparisons of neural maturation.

Androgen activity in the male embryonic hindbrain drives lethal PFA ependymoma.

mTORC1 and mTORC2 synergy in human neural development, disease, and regeneration.

ARP2/3 complex mediates the neuropathology of PTEN-deficient human neural cells downstream of mTORC1 and mTORC2 hyperactivation.

Long-read proteogenomic atlas of human neuronal differentiation reveals isoform diversity informing neurodevelopmental risk mechanisms.

LncRNA CISTR-ACT regulates cell size in human and mouse by guiding FOSL2.

Investigating the molecular pathogenesis of PTEN-related neurodevelopmental disorders and developing therapeutic strategies using human neural models

Prize 202203PJT - The role of outer radial glia in human brain expansion and cortical malformation disorders.

The role of outer radial glia in human brain expansion and cortical malformation disorders.

The molecular and cellular mechanisms of human brain expansion.

The molecular and cellular mechanisms of human brain expansion.

The molecular and cellular mechanisms of human brain expansion.

Frequent collaborators

Julien Muffat

Lu-Yang Wang

Brett Trost

Valerie Taylor

Zhaolei Zhang

Anne-Claude Gingras

Nada Jabado

Sophie Grigoriadis

Cindy-Lee Dennis

Yu Sun

Jason Moffat

Faiyaz Notta

Zhengping Jia

Vijay Ramaswamy

Ryan Van Lieshout

BO WANG

Benicio Frey

Valerie Taylor