Tengfei Li

Tengfei Li is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). He holds affiliations with the UNC School of Medicine and the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. His research focuses on integrating neuroimaging, genomics, and machine learning to study brain development, neurodegenerative diseases, and musculoskeletal disorders. He has pioneered methodologies in longitudinal brain mapping and genetic causal inference in medical imaging.

Dr. Li earned his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Fudan University, followed by postdoctoral training at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and UNC Chapel Hill. He has developed open-source tools like the 3D Slicer Craniomaxillofacial modules for clinical decision support in orthodontics and TMJ osteoarthritis. His work spans computational radiomics, neurodevelopmental epidemiology, and AI-driven surgical planning.

Key research themes include:

• Environmental toxin impacts on fetal/child brain development
• Genetic architecture of brain structure/function
• Machine learning for early disease diagnosis
• Multimodal imaging integration (MRI/PET/retinal)

His recent work demonstrates brain-heart phenotypic/genetic links, prenatal phthalate exposure effects, and AI-based osteoarthritis risk assessment platforms. He leads collaborations with the UK Biobank and the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI).