Master of Science in Medical Genetics, Shanghai Medical Unversity.
Doctor of Philosophy in Molecular Biology with Honor, University of Zurich.
After his Ph. D., he conducted research at Yale University, University of California at San Diego, and the Scripps Research Institute. Over the years of his biomedical research, he has made several original important scientific discoveries, which were published in prestigious scientific journals like Nature. His findings have been featured twice in the famous textbook "Molecular Biology of the Gene" (5th ed. 2004) by J. D. Watson, who discovered the DNA structure 50 years ago, and are being learnt by biomedical students in USA and around the world.

1. Graslund, T., Li, X. (joint first author), Magnenat, L., Popkov, M., Barbas III, C. F. (2005). Exploring strategies for the design of artificial transcription factors: targeting sites proximal to known regulatory regions for the induction of gamma-globin expression and the treatment of sickle cell disease. J Biol Chem. 280, 3707-3714.
2. Segal DJ, Goncalves J, Eberhardy S, Swan CH, Torbett BE, Li X, Barbas CF 3rd. (2004). Attenuation of HIV-1 replication in primary human cells with a designed zinc finger transcription factor.J Biol Chem. 279, 14509-19.
3. Xue, L., Li, X. and Noll, M. (2001). Encoding of multiple protein functions of Paired in Drosophila development and their conservation in the Gooseberry and Pax3 homologs. Development 128, 395-405.
4. Veraksa, A., McGinnis, N., Li, X., Mohler, J. and McGinnis, W. (2000). Cap 'n' collar B cooperates with a small Maf subunit to specify pharyngeal development and suppress Deformed homeotic function in the Drosophila head. Development 127, 4023-4037.
5. Li, X., Veraksa, A., and McGinnis, W.(1999). A sequence motif distinct from Hox binding sites controls the specificity of a Hox response element. Development 126, 5581-5589.
6. Li, X. and McGinnis, W. (1999). Activity regulation of Hox proteins, a mechanism for altering functional specificity in development and evolution. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 96, 6802-6807.
7. Li, X., Murre, C., and McGinnis, W. (1999). Activity regulation of a Hox protein and a role for the homeodomain in inhibiting transcriptional activation. EMBO J. 18, 198-211.
8. Duman-Scheel, M., Li, X., Orlov, I., Noll, M., and Patel, N. H. (1997). Genetic separation of the neural and cuticular patterning functions of gooseberry. Development 124, 2855-2865.
9. Li, X. and Noll, M. (1994). Compatibility between enhancers and promoters determines the transcriptional specificity of gooseberry and gooseberry neuro in the Drosophila embryo. EMBO J. 13, 400-406.
10. Li, X. and Noll, M.(1994). Evolution of distinct developmental functions of three Drosophila genes by acquisition of different cis-regulatory regions. Nature 367, 83-87.
11. Li, X. and Noll, M. (1993). Role of the gooseberry gene in Drosophila embryos: Maintenance of wingless expression by a wingless-gooseberry autoregulatory loop. EMBO J. 12, 4499-4509.
12. Gutjahr, T., Patel, N.H., Li, X., Goodman, C.S., and Noll, M. (1993).Analysis of the gooseberry locus in Drosophila embryos: gooseberry determines the cuticular pattern and activates gooseberry neuro. Development 118, 21-31.
13. Li, X., Gutjahr, T., and Noll, M. (1993). Separable regulatory elements mediate the establishment and maintenance of cell states by the Drosophila segment-polarity gene gooseberry. EMBO J. 12, 1427-1436.