1. Dun Li, Ph.D.
Cancer Biologist
Research and Development Scientist
Highly motivated, trained and skilled Ph.D. scientist with a solid record of achievements and publications
looking for a position to utilize my scientific experience and expertise to make significant contributions in
fighting human cancer and other diseases.
Key Personal Skills
 Fast Learner
 Excellent communication skills
 Team Leadership
 High level of computer expertise
 Extensive teaching experience
 Bilingual (English and Mandarin)
Key Technical Skills
 Molecular biology (DNA, RNA, protein purification and analysis, etc)
 Cellular biology (culture, cryopreservation, transfection, infection, etc)
 Targeting vector designing both in vivo and in vitro
 Large scale live animal handling (mice and zebrafish)
 Large scale drug screening both in vitro and in vivo
 Crispr/Cas9 targeted genome editing
 Cellular and biochemical assay development
 Grant and manuscript writing and editing
Areas of Expertise
 Cancer biology
 Oncology
 Cancer metabolomics
 Molecular and cellular biology
 Assay development
Professional Experience
Boston University, Boston, MA 9/14 – present
Postdoctoral Fellow
In Dr. Hui Feng’s lab, I am responsible for pioneering and leading multiple projects and personnel. Currently I
am focused on a breast cancer metabolism project, developing two new transgenic zebrafish leukemia models,
and a new transgenic zebrafish neuroblastoma model. My duties include: studying relevant literature,
designing experiments, analyzing results, troubleshooting and the training and organization of lab personnel.
Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 9/08 – 8/14
Graduate Student under the mentorship of Dr. Ute Moll
 Screened and developed novel treatments for human breast cancer using two or more inhibitors
 Characterized the mechanism of chemotherapeutic drug resistance in human breast cancer cell lines
 Discovered a novel mutant p53 function that drives tumor development

2.  Evaluate drug treatments in vivo using mutant p53 knock in mice
 Training and leading lab technicians and graduate students
GeneHarbor (Hong Kong) Biotechnologies Limited, Hong Kong, China 7/05 – 8/08
Part Time Research Assistant
 Created and purified multiple heat resistant enzymes to biosynthesize the antidepressant SAMe
 Helped design and evaluate assays to synthesize and purify SAMe
Education
The Chinese Universityof Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China 9/04-5/08
Bachelor of Science
Academic and Professional Honors
NIH T32 Pre-doc Cancer training grant 2012-2014
NIH T32 Post-doc Cancer training grant 2014-2016
Memberships in Professional Societies
AAAS member
Zebrafish Disease Model Society member
Research papers
1. ND Marchenko, W Hanel, D Li, K Becker, N Reich, UM Moll. 2010. Stress-mediated nuclear
stabilization of p53 is regulated by ubiquitination and importin-α3 binding. Cell Death & Differentiation
17 (2), 255-267
2. Dun Li, Natalia D Marchenko, Ramona Schulz, Victoria Fischer, Talia Velasco-Hernandez, Flaminia
Talos, Ute M Moll. 2011. Functional inactivation of endogenous MDM2 and CHIP by HSP90 causes
aberrant stabilization of mutant p53 in human cancer cells. Molecular Cancer Research 9 (5), 577-588
3. D Li, ND Marchenko, UM Moll. 2011. SAHA shows preferential cytotoxicity in mutant p53 cancer cells
by destabilizing mutant p53 through inhibition of the HDAC6-Hsp90 chaperone axis. Cell Death &
Differentiation 18 (12), 1904-1913
4. D Li, A Yallowitz, L Ozog, N Marchenko. 2014. A gain-of-function mutant p53–HSF1 feed forward
circuit governs adaptation of cancer cells to proteotoxic stress. Cell death & disease 5 (4), e1194
5. AR Yallowitz, D Li (co-first author), A Lobko, D Mott, A Nemajerova, N Marchenko. 2015. Mutant p53
amplifies Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor family signaling to promote mammary tumorigenesis.
Molecular Cancer Research. 0360.2014
6. EM Alexandrova, AR Yallowitz, D Li, S Xu, R Schulz, DA Proia, G Lozano, M Dobbelstein, UM Moll.
2015. Improving survival by exploiting tumour dependence on stabilized mutant p53 for treatment.
Nature, 523, 352–356
7. Anderson NM, Li D, Peng HL, Laroche FJ, Mansour MR, Gjini E, Aioub M, Helman DJ, Roderick JE,
Cheng T, Harrold I, Samaha Y, Meng L, Amsterdam A, Neuberg DS, Denton TT, Sanda T, Kelliher MA,
Singh A, Look AT, Feng H. 2015 The TCA cycle transferase DLST is important for MYC-mediated
leukemogenesis. Lekemia, Feb 15 (epub ahead of print)