Kincheon Bryan Li, M.D.

Bio

Dr. Li is a pediatric hematologist/oncologist and physician-scientist focusing on aggressive childhood brain tumors at Rady Children’s Hospital and UC San Diego.

He completed medical school at the University of Toronto, remaining there for his pediatrics residency and pediatric hematology/oncology fellowship. Under the mentorship of Dr. Annie Huang, he was among the first scientists to define the now World Health Organization-recognized molecular subgroups of pineoblastoma, a rare but highly lethal brain tumor arising in young children. He then completed a pediatric neuro-oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, before joining the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai as an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics.

Under the mentorship of Dr. Praveen Raju beginning at Sinai, and continuing at Rady’s and UCSD, he has been studying how to circumvent the blood-brain barrier to improve therapies for highly aggressive childhood brain tumors like diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG). Specifically, he has been developing novel P-selectin targeting nanomedicines to package anti-cancer therapeutics, enhancing their delivery into the tumor space while sparing normal brain tissue to reduce side-effects.

Clinically, he primarily works with the Neuro-Oncology and Solid Tumor programs in the outpatient clinic and inpatient unit.