Dr Wenyi Li

Dr Li obtained his Bachelor and Master degree (supervised by Prof Rui Wang) from Lanzhou University, China, and received his doctoral degree from The University of Melbourne under the supervision of Professors John D. Wade and Frances Separovic.

After two postdoctoral training with Prof Christian Hackenberger at Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie, Berlin, supported as a Leibniz-DAAD postdoctoral fellow, and with Professors Neil O'Brien-Simpson and Greg Qiao at the University of Melbourne, he relocated to La Trobe University to start his research group by focusing chemical biology and peptide chemistry for novel drug discovery.

Academic Position

  • Senior Lecturer / NHMRC Investigator EL1
    La Trobe University, Department of Biochemistry and Chemistry, Melbourne, Australia, 2025 -

  • Lecturer / NHMRC Investigator EL1
    La Trobe University, Department of Biochemistry and Chemistry, Melbourne, Australia, Feb 2023 - 2024

  • Research Fellow

    University of Melbourne, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, Melbourne, Australia, Nov 2018 - Jan 2023

  • Leibniz-DAAD postdoctoral fellow

    Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie, Chemical Biology, Berlin, Germany, 2017 - 2018

Selected Awards

  • 2024 Rennie Memorial Medal, The Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI)

  • 2023 High Commended for Vice-Chancellor’s ECR Research Excellence Award, La Trobe University

  • 2023 Early Career Researcher Excellence Award, School of Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment, La Trobe University

  • 2023 Young Peptide Scientist Award, Chinese Peptide Society

  • 2023 Wiley Aggregate Emerging Investigator

  • 2022 VESKI Victoria Fellow, Victoria Government, Australia

  • 2020 Young Investigator Award, International Symposium on antibiotic resistance and drug development

  • 2020 Australian Dental Industry Association Award

  • 2017 Leibniz-DAAD Research Fellowship German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst)

  • 2017 Graham Johnston Best Thesis Award Royal Australian Chemical Institute

  • 2017 Monica Reum Memorial Prize University of Melbourne

Member

  • Royal Society of Chemistry

  • Royal Australian Chemical Institute