Zhen Li

Dr. Zhen Li is a Principal Scientist and Deputy Focus Area Leader for Disc and Cartilage Biology at the ARI (having been at ARI since 2004). Zhen obtained her bachelor degree in Bioengineering at Chu Kechen Honors College, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. She then carried out her doctoral thesis at AO Research Institute Davos (ARI) and Zhejiang University in the field of cartilage tissue engineering between 2005-2010. In 2010-2011 she worked as an Assistant Professor at School of Medicine, Shandong University in China. In 2011 she returned to ARI for research on cartilage and intervertebral disc regenerative medicine. In 2015 she took a visiting scholarship at Tokai University School of Medicine in Japan. In 2017 she was appointed as Guest Professor at the medical school, Shenzhen University, China.

She is the author of over 70 scientific papers and book chapters. She has received various funding including from EU Horizon, Eurostars, COST, SNSF-SSSTC, German Spine Society, SET Foundation, German Arthritis Foundation, and AOSpine. She has supervised more than 40 MD research fellows, graduate and postgraduate students, and post-doctoral researchers.

She is an International Editorial Board Member of Journal of Orthopaedic Translation, eCM Journal International Review Panel Member, JOR Spine Advisory Review Board Member, ORS Spine Section Board Member, European Development Committee Member of International Chinese Musculoskeletal Research Society (ICMRS), and a member of EORS, TERMIS, OARSI and ICRS. She has received the ORS Spine Section & JOR Spine Early Career Award in 2020, and the AO Spine Europe Young Researcher Award in 2016.