Jiahe Li（李嘉禾）

Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering & Medical School
Affiliate faculty member in Cellular and Molecular Biology (CMB), Program in Chemical Biology (PCB), Cancer Biology Program, and the Rogel Cancer Center.
Bio
I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. I was a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at Northeastern University from 2019 to 2023, and relocated my lab to the University of Michigan in the summer of 2023.
Education
Post-doc, David Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, MIT, 2015-2018
PhD, Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University, 2009-2015
BS, Microbiology, China Agricultural University, 2005-2009
Honors & Awards
2026 The Wu Yi-fang Junior Faculty Award, University of Michigan
2025 World Association for Chinese Biomedical Engineers (WACBE)/CAB-BMES Young Investigator Award
2025 CMBE Rising Stars Award, BMES
2024 Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Young Innovator Award, BMES
2024 Swim Across America (SAA) Young Investigator Award
2023 NIH Director’s New Innovator Award
2023 NSF CAREER
2021 NIBIB Trailblazer Award
2021 Peer-Reviewed Cancer Research Program, Idea Award, Department of Defense
2020 Peer-Reviewed Medical Research Program, Discovery Award, Department of Defense
2018 Peer-Reviewed Medical Research Program, Discovery Award, Department of Defense
2016 David Koch Institute Quinquennial Postdoctoral Fellowship

    Research Staff

    University of Michigan logo

    Emily Swanekamp

    Emily obtained her BS in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Virginia. She is currently responsible for daily lab management and coordinating federal and industry projects.

      University of Michigan logo

      Indrani Talukder

      Animal technician. She is in charge of mouse breeding and genotyping over 300 cages of transgenic mice.

        Postdoctoral Fellows

        Zeyang Pang

        Postdoctoral Researcher. Zeyang obtained his PhD from a joint program of SUSTech (Shenzhen, China) and University of Leeds (UK). Research interests: Antibacteria, bioimaging, and drug delivery.

          Santosh Paudel

          Postdoctoral Researcher. Santosh received his PhD in microbiology from
          University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Research interests: microbial therapeutics

            Graduate Students

            Brian Hamp

            4th year PhD student in BME. Rogel Cancer Center Fellowship Awardee. Brian obtained his BS in Bioengineering from Northeastern University. He spent a few years in the biotech industry before pursuing a PhD in BME. Research interests: CRISPR, bacterial conjugation, and microbiome editing.

              Zongqi Wang

              4th year PhD student in BME. Zongqi obtained an MS in Bioengineering from Northeastern University. Research interests: Bacterial surface display for cancer immunotherapy.

                Maria Jennings

                3rd year PhD student in BME. NIH-funded T32 Acute and Critical Care Engineering Trainee. Maria obtained her BS in BME from the University of Michigan. Research interests: CRISPR, bacterial conjugation, and microbiome editing.

                  Ningyuan Ye

                  2nd year PhD student in BME. Ningyuan obtained a Master’s degree from the University of Michigan. Research interests: Bacterial engineering for therapeutic development.

                    Amber Haley

                    2nd year PhD student in BME. Rackham Merit Fellow. Amber obtained her BS in microbiology from Eastern Michigan University. Research interests: CRISPR, bacterial conjugation, and microbiome editing.

                      Collins Chimezie

                      3rd year PhD student in Chemical Biology. Rackham International Students Fellowship/Chia-Lun Lo Fellowship Awardee. Collins obtained his BS in Pharmaceutical Sciences and earned an MS in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from ITMO University, St. Petersburg, Russia. Research Interests: Microbial engineering, CRISPR, synthetic biology of natural products.

                        

                        Ivan Anterola

                        2nd year PhD student in Chemical Biology. Ivan graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with a B.S. in Chemistry. Research interests: Metabolomics and drug discovery.

                          Undergraduate Students

                          Trevor Martin

                          Senior in BME.

                            Hania Timek

                            Senior in the Biomedical Science Program. Research interests: Engineering B. subtilis spores.

                              Layth Kakish 

                              Senior in BME. Research interests: Oral microbiome

                                Alumni

                                Xin Sun

                                PhD in Bioengineering, Northeastern University (graduated in 2021). PhD thesis: Protein Engineering Approaches towards Respiratory Disease Prevention and Therapeutics: From Lung Cancer to COVID-19. Current position: Postdoctoral Research Fellow at MD Anderson Center.

                                  Mengdi Yang

                                  Mengdi Yang

                                  PhD in Bioengineering, Northeastern University (graduated in 2024). PhD thesis: Innovative Bioengineering Approaches Development: from Host-Microbiome Crosstalk to Therapeutics Production. Current position: Scientist at Hoofprint Biome, North Carolina.

                                    Shaobo Yang

                                    PhD in Bioengineering, Northeastern University (graduated in 2024). PhD thesis: Engineering the Surface of Non-Pathogenic E. coli: A Novel and Efficient Platform for Cancer Prevention and Immunotherapy. Current position: Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

                                      • Zhihong Dong, Lab manager, (2025-2026). Next position: TBD
                                      • Noah Hutchinson, Postdoc, (2023-2026). Next position: Postdoc at Harvard Medical School
                                      • Chengyuan Fang, visiting MD-PhD student (2023-2025). Next position: Thoracic surgical oncologist at Harbin Medical University
                                      • Rui Zhang, Lab manager, (2023-2024). Next position: animal technician at the University of Michigan Medical School
                                      • Hangu Nam (MS in BioE, Northeastern University)
                                      • Valeria Marquez (BS in BioE, Universidad de Ingeniería y Tecnología, Perú). Next position: PhD student at MIT
                                      • Ge Zhu (MS in Biotechnology, Northeastern University)
                                      • Ming Guan (BS in BioE, Northeastern University)
                                      • Yun Ni (MS in BioE, Northeastern University)
                                      • Shana Broitman (BS in BioE and CS, Northeastern University)
                                      • Ahmed Bekdash (BS in Biochemistry, Northeastern University)
                                      • Thomas Conway (BS in BioE, Northeastern University)
                                      • Myer Hussain (BS in BioE, Northeastern University)
                                      • Yara AlOmair (BS in BioE, Northeastern University)
                                      • Myria Scott (BS ChemE, Northeastern University)
                                      • Helena Jenkins (BS in BioE, Northeastern University)
                                      • Ian Hay (BS in BioE, Northeastern University)
                                      • Peter Doran (BS in BioE, Northeastern University)
                                      • Yuqianxun Wu (BS in BioE, Northeastern University)
                                      • Shreya Basireddy (BS in BioE, Northeastern University)