Na Li has joined the UConn School of Pharmacy as Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences.  Her work will include physical pharmacy, particularly in the area of dissolution of amorphous formulations, as well as more biologically focused research on intestinal endothelium permeability and its interplay with the microbiome.  Her initial teaching responsibilities will be in the pharmaceutics graduate core course complex equilibria, and she will also participate in the curriculum for Pharm.D. students. With a background in industry, it is expected that Li will further enhance the strength of the pharmaceutics discipline in pharmaceutical technology and processing.

Born and raised in China, Li received her bachelor’s degree in Food Science and Engineering from South China University of Technology in 2008. The following year, she began Ph.D. studies in Food Chemistry at Purdue University where she received her doctorate in 2014. During her graduate study, she worked on phytochemical stability as well as deliquescence. This was followed by postdoctoral research in the Department of Industrial and Physical Pharmacy at Purdue, with a research focus on amorphous solid dispersions.  Most recently, she has worked in the pharmaceutical industry, specializing in solid-state chemistry and pre-formulation of small molecule drug candidates.

Li says,” I am very excited about joining the department with a long tradition of academic excellence. I am interested in using interdisciplinary tools to investigate gaps in oral drug delivery systems, and provide mechanistic understanding of drug absorption and metabolism to enable rational formulation design.”