Biophysics

Dr. Shi-Jiang Li received his engineering degree from the Department of Electronics Engineering at Tsinghua University, The People's Republic of China. He worked for eight years as a communication engineer and later as a graduate student in the Biophysics Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Science. He received his Ph.D. from Ohio State University in Biochemistry and spent three years as a post-doctoral fellow in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in MRI/MRS laboratory. His multi-disciplinary education and experiences provided him with a broad background to conduct sophisticated biophysics research.

At present, he has three NIH-funded research projects and an Office of National Drug Control Policy, White House funded Instrumentation project:

1) Roles of Orbitofrontal Cortex in Cocaine Abuse by fMRI, funded by National Institute on Drug Abuse.  Cocaine addiction is often considered a disease of drive and compulsion. Based on this concept of addiction, reward/pleasure per se cannot completely account for the compulsive drug intake. The goal of this proposal is to study the neural systems subserving reward and compulsive drug taking in cocaine addiction and to study the neural circuitry responsible for compulsive drug taking behaviors triggered by both drug-related cues- and cocaine-itself.

2) An fMRI Index as a Risk Marker for Alzheimer's Disease, funded by National Institute on Aging.   The research focus of this project is to develop and validate an early, non-invasive, quantitative marker for the preclinical stage of Alzheimer's disease (AD) using fMRI.  Such a risk marker for AD will have significant advantages in identifying people at risk, facilitating early assessment and providing effective disease management

3) Development of fMRI Methods for Neuropharmacology, funded by National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering.  The main goal is to extend application of fMRI method to neuropharmacology. Specifically, we will test a hypothesis that fMRI technology is a valid method to map drug-induced functions. Upon administration of an agonist, fMRI methods can detect BOLD signals originating from the neural events of agonist-receptor interaction.  We will further test the hypothesis that such neural events can be blocked by pretreatment or reversed by post-treatment with a particular receptor's antagonist. 

4) fMRI Research for Drug Demand Reduction in Animal Models, funded by Office of National Drug Control Policy, White House. This project is for purchasing a 9.4T/30cm MRI system and for enhancing research capability for MRI physics and technology development, application of functional MRI to neuropharmacology, drug abuse, cancer research, and genetics.

He is collaborating with many distinguished investigators for conducting a multi- disciplinary research in the related research frontiers: Dr. Anthony Hudetz, Professor of Anesthesiology, Dr. Alan Bloom, Professor of Pharmacology, Dr. Piero Antuono, Professor of Neurology, Dr. Charles Rainey, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry,  etc.