Biography

I am currently working as a professor in the school of pharmaceutical sciences at Wuhan University, a candidate of the 1000 talents plan for young talents. My bachelor and master degree graduated from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and my doctor degree graduated from City University of Hong Kong. After that, I went to Georgia Institute of Technology and worked there as a postdoctoral fellow. I have been working on drug delivery and controlled release for many years, and has published some papers in Nature Biomedical Engineering，Nature Reviews Materials, Science Advances, Journal of Controlled Release, Biomaterials as the first author or corresponding author during the past 5 years. Some work has already been reported by 59 medias, and commented by Nature Reviews Materials and Nature Biomedical Engineering. I have also been invited as reviewers for a lot of academic journals, such as Science Advances, Advanced Materials, Advanced Functional Materials, Advanced Healthcare Materials, Nanoscale, Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Research

My research focus on the design of microneedle-based transdermal delivery systems for bolus or sustained release of drugs for a variety of biomedical applications, such as chronic wound healing, hair regrowth therapy, and cancer treatment.

Representative  Publications

1. W. Li, Jie Tang, Dennis Lee, Thomas Tice, Steven Schwendeman, and Mark Prausnitz^*, “Clinical Translation of Long-acting Drug Delivery Formulations”, Nature Reviews Materials, 7: 406–420 (2022)

2. W. Li, R. Terry, J. Tang, M. Feng, S. Schwendeman, M. Prausnitz^*, “Rapidly Separable Microneedle Patch for the Sustained Release of a Contraceptive”, Nature Biomedical Engineering, 3: 220-229 (2019) (Highlighted by Nature Biomedical Engineering, Nature Reviews Materials, Science Daily and homepage of Georgia Institute of Technology)

3. W. Li, J. Tang, R. Terry, S. Li, A. Brunie, R. Callahan, R. Noel, C. Rodriguez, S. Schwendeman, M. Prausnitz^*, “Long-acting Reversible Contraception by Effervescent Microneedle Patch”, Science Advances, 5 (11), eaaw8145 (2019) (Featured by Science and highlighted by homepage of Georgia Institute of Technology).

4. W. Li#^*, S Li#, X Fan, MR Prausnitz^*, “Microneedle patch designs to increase dose administered to human subjects”, Journal of Controlled Release, 339: 350-360 (2021)

5. W. Li^*, J. Chen, R. Terry, J. Tang, A. Romanyuk, S. Schwendeman, M. Prausnitz^*, “Core-shell microneedle patch for six-month controlled-release contraceptive delivery”, Journal of Controlled Release, 347: 489-499 (2022)

6.  H. Yang, X. Jiang, Y. Zeng, W. Zhang, Q. Yuan, M. Yin, G. Wu, W. Li^*,“A swellable bilateral microneedle patch with core-shell structure for rapid lactate analysis and early melanoma diagnosis”，Chemical Engineering Journal, 455,140730 (2023)

7.  Y. Zeng, C. Wang, K. Lei, C. Xiao, X. Jiang, W. Zhang, L. Wu, J. Huang*, W. Li^*, “Multifunctional MOF-based Microneedle Patch with Synergistic Chemo-photodynamic Antibacterial Effect and Sustained Release of Growth Factor for Chronic Wound Healing”, Advanced Healthcare Materials, (2023) 2300250 (2023).

8.  C. Wang^#, Y. Zeng^#, K. Chen, J. Lin, Q. Yuan, X. Jiang, G. Wu, F. Wang^*, Y. Jia^*, W. Li^*, “A self-monitoring microneedle patch for light-controlled synergistic treatment of melanoma”, Bioactive Materials, 27,58-71 (2023).

9.  M. Yin^#, Y. Zeng#, H. Liu^#, W. Zhang, C. Wang, C. Chen^*, W. Li^*, “Dissolving Microneedle Patch Integrated with Microspheres for Long-Acting Hair Regrowth Therapy”, ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 15, 17532-17542 (2023).