Rate My Professor Ming Li

Ming Li is an Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering, at Macquarie University. She is currently an Associate Professor and NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow in the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney). Ming Li obtained her PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wollongong in 2013. Subsequently, she served as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Houston (2013–2014) and in the Departments of Bioengineering and Electrical Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles (2014–2017). She joined Macquarie University as a Lecturer in 2018, advancing to Senior Lecturer by 2023, while contributing to the Biomolecular Discovery Research Centre.

Her research focuses on microfluidics and biosensors, particularly droplet microfluidics for single-cell analysis, cell and particle separation and manipulation in microfluidic devices, biosensors for molecular detection and characterisation, and cytometry for profiling cellular heterogeneity. Her work has applications in cellular biophysics, cancer diagnosis, molecular biology, medical diagnostics, health assessment, and environmental monitoring. Ming Li has produced over 100 research outputs, including articles in high-impact journals such as Cell, Nature Protocols, Biotechnology Advances, Small, Biosensors & Bioelectronics, Lab on a Chip, and Analytical Chemistry. Notable publications include "High-throughput imaging flow cytometry by optofluidic time-stretch microscopy" (Lab on a Chip, 2018), "Mechanical properties of single cells: measurement methods and application in cardiovascular research" (Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology, 2020), "Droplet flow cytometry for single-cell analysis" (Electrophoresis, 2021), and "A CRISPR-Cas12a powered electrochemical sensor based on gold nanodendrites and tetrahedral DNA nanostructures for ultrasensitive detection of miRNA-21" (Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 2023). She was awarded the NHMRC Investigator Grant (GNT2017679, 2023–2027) as the sole Chief Investigator for developing platform technologies for antibiotic resistance diagnostics at single-cell resolution.