Published on 2025-12-04 by kotos001
By Kali Kotoski, Midwest AViDD Communications Director
Midwest AViDD Co-Director Dr. Fang Li is one of two recipients of this year’s Dean’s Distinguished Research Lectureship (DDRL), which recognizes the outstanding research achievements of faculty at the UMN Medical School. The DDRL is regarded as the highest honor for Medical School faculty, and Dr. Li is the first faculty member from the Department of Pharmacology ever to receive this distinction.
In addition, Dr. Li received four Wall of Scholarship awards from the UMN Medical School for his highly cited research articles. Collectively, these four articles have each been cited more than 4,000 times on average to date, according to Google Scholar. They are among seven research articles honored by the Medical School this year.
“Receiving the Dean’s Distinguished Research Lectureship, along with the Wall of Scholarship awards, is a great honor for my lab and me,” Dr. Li said. “These recognitions reflect two decades of team effort to understand how coronaviruses infect host cells and cross species, and they highlight outstanding trainees, collaborators, and the strong support of the Department of Pharmacology and the Medical School that make this research possible.”
Dr. Li’s recognized articles include:
- A Science paper (2005) describing the crystal structure of the SARS-CoV-1 receptor-binding protein complexed with its human ACE2 receptor, which launched the era of structural biology of coronavirus entry.
- A Journal of Virology paper (online in January 2020) that accurately predicted the host receptor of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), as well as the virus’s molecular behaviors, for example which animals the virus infects or does not infect, how to create small-animal models for the virus, and the potential evolution of its receptor-binding protein.
- A Nature paper (online in March 2020) describing the crystal structure of the SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding protein complexed with its human ACE2 receptor, laying the foundation for vaccine design and antibody therapeutic development against the virus.
- A PNAS paper (May 2020) identifying three critical structural features of SARS-CoV-2 that help explain how the virus was able to spread globally and cause a pandemic.
Together, these publications laid key structural and mechanistic foundations for the global response to COVID-19, guiding research on viral infection, viral evolutionary origins, vaccines, antiviral therapies, and surveillance of emerging viral variants.
At the awards ceremony, Dr. Li delivered a lecture on the structural biology of virus entry and antiviral development, including the structural basis of how viruses enter host cells and transmit across species, and how antivirals can be designed to block viral entry. The presentation spanned two decades of research, from early work on SARS-CoV-1, through the COVID-19 pandemic, to other emerging pandemic threats. A pioneer in defining the structural mechanisms of coronavirus entry and cross-species transmission, Dr. Li used the lecture to highlight key milestones from his lab. You can watch Dr. Li’s presentation here.