Jiahui Li Featured as Rising Researcher in AAPS Open
American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists Open recently featured Molecular Pharmaceutics postdoctoral researcher Dr. Jiahui Li (Kopeček/Yang lab) as a Rising Researcher: Spotlighting rising researcher Jiahui Li: advancing cancer treatment with HPMA-based therapeutics: innovations in receptor crosslinking, targeted delivery, and chemo-immunotherapy
Jiahui was first recognized for her work when she received a Best Poster Award at the AAPS PharmSci 2024 conference in Salt Lake City, where her poster was one of only three posters selected from nearly 1,000 presentations, for her research on HPMA copolymer–enhanced antibody-drug conjugates. Following this, AAPS Open, the flagship journal of AAPS, invited her to write an editorial expanding on her research, which led to her inclusion in the Rising Researcher series.
Jiahui shared that this recognition is especially meaningful as it reflects the broader scientific community’s interest in her work and may help open doors for new collaborations and translational opportunities.
Jiahui’s research focuses on developing polymer-based drug delivery systems to make cancer treatment safer and more effective. Traditional chemotherapy often damages healthy cells as well as cancer cells, leading to severe side effects. To address this, her work builds on HPMA polymer-based platforms that deliver drugs more selectively to tumors while sparing healthy tissue. Her projects include designing targeted conjugates that induce cancer cell death in treatment-resistant tumors, creating high-capacity polymer–antibody drug conjugates capable of safely delivering larger drug doses, and developing chemo-immunotherapy combinations that help the immune system better recognize and attack cancer. Together, these strategies aim to tackle key clinical challenges—drug resistance, toxicity, and immune evasion—with the goal of improving both outcomes and quality of life for patients.
Jiahui expressed deep gratitude to her PhD mentors, Dr. Jindřich Kopeček and Dr. Jiyuan Yang, as well as clinical collaborators at Huntsman Cancer Institute—Dr. Douglas Sborov, Dr. Siwen Hu-Lieskovan, and Dr. Theresa Werner—for their guidance and insight. She hopes to continue bridging innovative drug delivery science with clinical translation and to contribute to therapies that make a meaningful difference in patients’ lives.
Congratulations to Jiahui on this exciting recognition as an AAPS Open Rising Researcher!
