Yanfei Qi

Dr Yanfei (Jacob) Qi is a lipid biologist. He is heading the Lipid Cell Biology Laboratory at Centenary Institute, The University of Sydney, Australia. Dr Qi commenced his research career at Sydney Pharmacy School, The University of Sydney, followed by the research training at the Department of Endocrinology, Kyoto University, Japan. He was awarded his PhD in 2013 at Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney. More recently, he was a Research Fellow at School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales, Australia. In the previous research, Qi and his colleagues discovered the first bona fide lipid transfer protein that transports intracellular cholesterol to the cell surface, which is essential for maintaining normal cell functions, and identified key sphingolipid and phospholipid metabolic enzymes as druggable targets for diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and lipodystrophy. Evolving from the prior expertise, Dr Qi's current research focuses on the lipid metabolic causes of 1) type 2 diabetes, 2) liver metabolism and cancer as well as 3) vascular dysfunction and ageing. He is also committed to identifying novel commercialisable lipid biomarkers for disease risk prediction in large cohorts through national and international collaborations.