Ronald A. Li serves as Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and Co-Founder of Medera, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing next-generation cardiac gene therapies using targeted delivery and human-relevant preclinical models. Dr. Li is an internationally recognized expert in cardiac electrophysiology, human heart cell and tissue engineering, and pluripotent stem cells with over 200 peer-reviewed publications.
As an academic-turned-serial entrepreneur, Dr. Li has demonstrated successful track records in biotech across foundational to translational research, fundraising, public listing, mergers and acquisitions, privatization, joint ventures, licensing, and corporate finance. His academic career spanned prestigious institutions including Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins University, Associate Professor at University of California, Davis, Full Professor at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in Manhattan, and Center Director of Ming-Wai Lau Center for Reparative Medicine at the Karolinska Institutet.
Dr. Li has received numerous awards and accolades throughout his career, including being a two-time recipient of the Top Young Faculty Award of Johns Hopkins, Top Young Investigator and Top Postdoc Fellow of Johns Hopkins, and Young Investigator Award 1st Prize of Heart Rhythm Society. His groundbreaking research earned him the American Heart Association Best Study of 2005 and Groundbreaking Study of 2006 for his work on the first genetically engineered human pluripotent stem cell-derived heart cells and cell- and gene-based biopacemakers. He has been named a Distinguished Visiting Professor by the University of Toronto and Distinguished Alumnus by the University of Waterloo.
