Li Fan

Li Fan is an Instructor in Neuroscience at the Brain and Mind Research Institute, Weill Cornell Medical College, a position she has held since 2022. Her work bridges cutting-edge single-cell genomics with neuroimmunology to understand how microglia and molecular pathways drive neurodegeneration, particularly in Alzheimer’s disease and related tauopathies.

Education

• Ph.D., Lanzhou University (China), 2012
• B.A., Tianshui Normal University (China), 2007

Research Interests

Dr. Fan’s research integrates multi-omics single-cell profiling, microglial biology, and neuroimmunology to dissect mechanisms underlying Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, and sex-specific brain aging. She probes how risk alleles, epigenomic states, and innate immune signaling (e.g., cGAS-STING, NF-κB, TLR7) modulate microglial phenotypes, tau propagation, and myelin integrity across brain regions and disease stages.

Publication Themes

Across her 15 most recent papers (2020-2025) she interrogates four intertwined themes: (1) microglial senescence and cGAS-STING-IFN signaling as drivers of tau-mediated neurodegeneration; (2) discovery of protective genetic variants such as the APOE3-R136S mutation; (3) single-cell chromatin-transcriptome and splicing atlases of human and mouse brain; and (4) sex-specific immune mechanisms (TLR7, X-linked factors) governing demyelination in aging and Alzheimer’s disease.

Scientific Awards & Honors

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Advising & Grants

No specific students, grant numbers, or funding agencies are mentioned in the text.

Laboratory & Team Information

Details of her laboratory, research group members, or future projects have not been disclosed in the supplied material.