{"id":30758,"date":"2018-07-26T15:47:48","date_gmt":"2018-07-26T15:47:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/?p=30758"},"modified":"2019-01-10T14:51:39","modified_gmt":"2019-01-10T19:51:39","slug":"deyu-li-named-avedisian-endowed-chair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/2018\/07\/26\/deyu-li-named-avedisian-endowed-chair\/","title":{"rendered":"Deyu Li named Avedisian Endowed Chair"},"content":{"rendered":"

The College of Pharmacy professor, known for DNA and cancer research, also received the NIH ONES Award<\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/a>Assistant Professor Deyu Li is known around the College of Pharmacy as a dedicated, engaging teacher who inspires students in the classroom and the lab. He is known as a talented researcher making significant breakthroughs in DNA science and cancer treatment, earning him multiple awards, including Outstanding New Environmental Researcher Award from the National Institutes of Health.<\/p>\n

He is now also known as the Paramaz Avedisian Endowed Chair in Medical Organic Chemistry.<\/p>\n

Dr. Li has been chosen for the position named for 1954 URI graduate Paramaz Avedisian, namesake of the College\u2019s Avedisian Hall, College of Pharmacy Dean Paul Larrat has announced. The chair is part of the $5 million gift Edward Avedisian made to the college in 2017 in honor of his late brother, a dedicated pharmacist and chemist who believed strongly that education and constant innovation are paramount to quality patient care. Li is the perfect person to continue that legacy, Edward Avedisian said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got a great rapport with students; he\u2019s doing a great job bringing in research grants; and he\u2019s producing impressive results in the lab. A guy like that can draw in the top students,\u201d Avedisian said. \u201cWhen you\u2019ve got curiosity, creativity and you\u2019re willing to work, huge developments can come out of it. Deyu is the perfect person to make that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Li is the first named for the endowed chair, which provides $1.5 million in funding, in perpetuity. The endowment is intended to help the chair build a team of scientists across multiple disciplines \u2014 chemistry, molecular biology, pharmaceutical sciences, etc. \u2014 to work toward the goal of finding better therapies for diseases and better treatments for patients.<\/p>\n

That has been Li\u2019s mission since arriving at URI as an assistant professor in the College of Pharmacy in 2014. In his latest study, Li identifies the mutational spectra of human carcinogens<\/a>, which often cause cancer years, or even decades, after a person is exposed. By identifying and recognizing the pattern in a patient\u2019s DNA, doctors can warn patients about their exposure, increasing the chances of curing the cancer before it takes hold.<\/p>\n

\u201cCancer is a devastating disease that touches millions of people. It\u2019s not just a medical, but a societal problem,\u201d Li said. \u201cI want to work on early detection, early treatment and better, precision therapy. We have a chance to really dig in to understand the disease and improve the therapy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Avedisian Endowed chair will give Li the opportunity and the resources to make a difference not just in cancer research, but other devastating diseases pharmaceutical researchers are attempting to treat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re gradually advancing toward the end goal of finding better therapies, but this is not a one-day study. It takes time. The endowed chair will give us the time and support to get there,\u201d Li said. \u201cIt\u2019s always been my goal to study disease, find better drugs and improve treatment. This gives me a lot of confidence and support to pursue this goal I\u2019ve had for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dean Larrat shares that confidence in Li, expecting the Avedisian Chair will help the professor succeed in his mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeyu is truly one of the rising stars not just at URI but throughout the entire pharmaceutical development industry,\u201d Larrat said. \u201cHe is an engaging teacher who will continue to attract the top students to the College and to his lab. He has already proven himself to be among the most talented researchers in his field. I have no doubt the many breakthroughs Deyu will achieve will impact the medical community for decades to come.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The College of Pharmacy professor, known for DNA and cancer research, also received the NIH ONES Award Assistant Professor Deyu Li is known around the College of Pharmacy as a dedicated, engaging teacher who inspires students in the classroom and the lab. He is known as a talented researcher making significant breakthroughs in DNA science […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1710,"featured_media":30761,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[278,281],"class_list":["post-30758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-uri-academic-health-collaborative","tag-uri-college-of-pharmacy"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1710"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30758"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33989,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30758\/revisions\/33989"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}