Loretta Li, MD
Assistant Professor, Pediatrics (Hematology, Oncology, and Stem Cell Transplantation)
Research Program
- Translational Research in Malignancy (TRIM)
Cancer-Focused Research
Dr. Loretta Li is a pediatric oncologist who specializes in hematologic malignancies at Lurie Children's Hospital / Northwestern University. She is interested in the development of more-targeted therapies for high-risk leukemia patients and the practice of personalized cancer medicine based on underlying genetic changes that drive a particular malignancy. Dr. Li has been leading efforts to study mechanisms of response and resistance to type II Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) inhibitors in B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL), the most common form of cancer in children. She has been collaborating with Dr. Nathanael Gray's lab at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to validate the preclinical activity of novel type II JAK2 inhibitors, some of which have now been licensed to a start-up. The Li laboratory uses a variety of biochemical, molecular, and cell biology approaches to identify new therapeutic targets, develop preclinical models of disease, and test novel therapeutics both in vitro and in vivo using mouse models. Dr. Li seeks to use her dual training in clinical medicine and laboratory research to more expeditiously bring promising novel therapies to clinical trials for patients.