Jun Li, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor in the Wayne State University School of Medicine Department of Neurology, recently received the 2007-2008 Junior Faculty Award for Science from the Wayne State University Academy of Scholars.

Each year the academy selects a junior faculty member to represent the sciences. Dr. Li was selected from among non-tenured faculty members who are in the process of building careers through the publication of papers and have received national or international recognition early in their careers.

Dr. Li, also an adjunct professor of the Department of Pathology at Wayne State University School of Medicine, has published extensively on inherited and acquired diseases of the peripheral nerves. Some of his recent studies have also explored neuronal degeneration and the electrophysiological features of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and motor neuron damages by West Nile virus infection. He has published 21 papers in the last five years and is an internationally recognized neuromuscular disease specialist. One of his recent research projects was ranked within the top 5 percent of all presentations and received a scientific highlight in 2008 American Academy of Neurology annual meeting.

Dr Li, who received his medical degree from Anhui Medical University, China, in 1985 and his doctoral degree in neuroscience from Drexel University College of Medicine in 1995, is funded by a variety of external sources, including the National Institutes of Health and the Muscular Dystrophy Association. He was the recent recipient of the Veterans Administration’s Rehabilitation Research & Development Scientific Merit Award for his research project, “Molecular Mechanism of Conduction Block in Nerve Injuries.”

“The Department of Neurology and the of School of Medicine have helped me to establish my laboratory, enabling us to learn new information from our patients, carefully characterize them and from there, propose new pathogenic-mechanisms that will be further investigated in animal models and in vitro models, and hopefully lead to new treatments.” said Dr. Li. “Wayne State has offered an excellent academic environment for my career development.”