Mengchu Li, Ph.D.

I received B.S. and M.S. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from China Pharmaceutical University and Temple University, respectively. Then I was admitted to Virginia Commonwealth University and obtained my Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences with a concentration in Medicinal Chemistry. My previous research has focused on drug design and development in the field of non-addictive analgesics and opioid use disorder treatments. My work has involved molecular design, organic syntheses, in vitro bioscreening, behavior pharmacology, and molecular biology. As a member of Dr. Traynor's lab, my research focuses on the discovery of novel negative allosteric modulators of mu-opioid receptors as OUD treatments.