Rate My Professor Li Zhang

Associate Professor Li Zhang is an Associate Professor of Medical Microbiology and Immunology in the Biology field at the University of New South Wales School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences. She received her MBBS degree from Fudan University in Shanghai, China, and her PhD from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. Prior to her PhD, she worked as a clinician at the China-Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing. Following her doctoral studies, Dr. Zhang was a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology at the National University of Singapore before joining UNSW. Her research group examines gut pathogens and their role in inflammatory diseases, studying bacterial genomes, virulence factors, bacteria's impact on immune function, and novel methods to enhance antibiotic sensitivity. Earlier research focused on autoimmune diseases.

A pioneering researcher in human-hosted Campylobacter species and inflammatory bowel disease, Dr. Zhang hypothesizes that certain strains of Campylobacter concisus possess enteric pathogenicity and initiate a subgroup of IBD. Her laboratory has discovered disease associations, the natural oral colonization site of C. concisus, two genomospecies based on core genome phylogeny, IBD-associated genomic features, the pSma1 plasmid linked to severe ulcerative colitis, and the pICON plasmid with toxin gene csep1 associated with Crohn's disease. Current investigations target the pathogenic mechanisms of these IBD-associated plasmids. Her team has also identified Aeromonas species as the second most common enteric bacterial pathogen in Australia, characterized by a novel three-peak infection pattern related to patient age and primarily local acquisition. Further studies address infection sources and species-level characteristics for prevention and treatment. Additional work explores how commensal gut bacteria upregulate intestinal epithelial PD-L1 under inflammatory conditions, affecting PD-1/PD-L1 blockade immunotherapy, alongside discovery of anti-inflammatory agents and improved bacterial pathogen diagnostics. Dr. Zhang has supervised eight PhD students, five MSc students, one MPhil student, five Graduate Diploma students, and 36 Honours students to completion. She has been the coordinator and principal lecturer for BABS3041 Immunology since 2012 and for the medical microbiology component in UNSW's medical program since 2020. Awards include the 2025 BABS T1 Titans of Teaching Award Runner-up (Large Class Course) for BABS3041 Immunology, 2024 UNSW Arc PGC Research Supervisor Award Faculty of Science Honourable Mention, 2020 BABS T1 Titans Runner-up, 2019 UNSW President Award Nominee, and 2014 BABS T1 Titans Award. She serves as Associate Editor for Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology since 2022 and Gut Pathogens since 2021, and Editorial Board Member for World Journal of Gastroenterology since 2017. Key publications encompass 'Human macrophage response to the emerging enteric pathogen Aeromonas veronii: Inflammation, apoptosis and downregulation of histones' (2025, Virulence), 'Enteric Aeromonas infections: a common enteric bacterial infection with a novel infection pattern detected in an Australian population with gastroenteritis' (2023, Microbiology Spectrum), 'Analysis of global Aeromonas veronii genomes provides novel information on source of infection and virulence in human gastrointestinal diseases' (2022, BMC Genomics), 'Genomic analysis of oral Campylobacter concisus strains identified a potential bacterial molecular marker associated with active Crohn's disease' (2018, Emerging Microbes & Infections), and 'Isolation and detection of Campylobacter concisus from saliva of healthy individuals and patients with inflammatory bowel disease' (2010, Journal of Clinical Microbiology).