Dr. Jia Li

Dr Jia Li is an Associate Professor in Biological Chemistry and co-lead the Section of Nutrition in the Department of Metabolism, Digestion, and Reproduction at Imperial College London. Jia obtained her BSc (Hons) in Chemistry from Nankai University, China, and PhD in Biochemistry from the University of London, UK. Dr Li is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Higher Education Academy, and a member of the Biochemical Society and the Metabolomics Society. Her research has been supported by several prestigious awards, including Imperial College Research Fellowship, Medical Research Council New Investigator Grant, European Research Council Starting Grant, Wang-Kuan-Cheng Research Fellowship, and Elsie Widdowson Fellowship Award. Dr Li has co-led the Gut Health Theme within the Imperial Biomedical Research Centre, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (2018-2022). She previously served as Deputy Director of Imperial International Phenome Training Centre (2013-2020) and was President of the Society of Chinese Life Scientists in the UK (2023-2025). Her research group explores the complex interplay between host metabolism, diet, and the gut microbiota using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy- and mass spectrometry-based metabolic profiling. By integrating these approaches with other technologies including multi-omics, immunofluorescence, immunohistochemistry and flow cytometry, her team aims to elucidate the roles of metabolites in maintaining human health.