Jing Li received his bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and master’s degree in Biochemistry from Beijing Normal University. He earned his Ph.D. in Biophysics and Computational Biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign under the mentorship of Prof. Emad Tajkhorshid, where he developed and applied molecular dynamics (MD) simulation approaches to address fundamental questions regarding the molecular mechanisms of membrane transport proteins.

During his postdoctoral training with Prof. Benoît Roux at the University of Chicago, Jing combined MD simulations with multidimensional free-energy calculations to investigate the molecular mechanism of C-type (slow) inactivation in potassium channels. This work led to several discoveries that advanced the atomic-level understanding of ion-channel gating and inactivation.

Jing began his independent academic career in July 2020 as an Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in the Department of BioMolecular Sciences at the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy. His research group has since expanded its focus to understanding the molecular mechanisms of ion-channel function and dysfunction, with particular emphasis on disease-associated mutations, post-translational modifications, membrane regulation, and therapeutic modulation using molecular simulations, bioinformatics, and artificial intelligence.

In 2025, Jing received two major federal research awards: an NSF CAREER Award and an NIH Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA, R35), supporting his group’s research on the molecular mechanisms and regulation of ion channels. In 2026, he joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Georgia (UGA) as a faculty member, where his group continues to develop and apply computational and AI-driven approaches to investigate membrane-protein mechanisms and facilitate therapeutic discovery.