Yun Li

Dr. Yun Li is a Professor in the Department of Genetics and Department of Biostatistics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill), affiliated with the UNC School of Medicine. He also holds an adjunct position as an Associate Professor in Applied Physical Sciences. His research focuses on developing statistical methods for genetic and genomic studies, including genotype imputation (e.g., MaCH software), multi-omics integration, and analysis of complex diseases such as metabolic, autoimmune, cardiovascular, and neuropsychiatric disorders. He leads the Li Lab, which has contributed to projects like the 1000 Genomes Project, TOPMed, and BACPAC consortium. Dr. Li’s work emphasizes methodological advancements for low-coverage sequencing, epigenetic studies, single-cell RNA-seq, and chromatin organization analysis.

Education: Ph.D. in Biostatistics from the University of Michigan (2009). Leadership includes roles in the NIH PRIMED consortium and the 4DN Predictive Modeling Working Group. The lab has developed tools such as HUGIn for Hi-C data exploration and CUE for DNA methylation imputation. Collaborations span multi-omic studies, precision medicine, and population genetics across diverse populations.

Research interests span statistical genetics, genomic data integration, and translational applications. The lab actively participates in consortia addressing genetic dissection of complex traits, leveraging single-cell and spatial transcriptomics, and chromatin 3D architecture.