About

Dr. Li Na Wei is a Distinguished McKnight University Professor and a Full Professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Minnesota. She received her B.S. in Botany from National Taiwan University, an M.S. in Microbiology & Immunology from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in Microbiology from Texas Tech Health Sciences Center. Her post-doctoral training was conducted in Microbiology/Medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons. Dr. Wei joined the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Minnesota as an Assistant Professor in 1993, was promoted to tenured Associate Professor in 1999, and became a Full Professor in 2003. She has been continuously supported by multiple NIH research projects since 1993. Her research interests include regulatory pathways and mechanisms in diseases related to motor function, neuro-endocrine regulation, and immunity. Her laboratory investigates key targets such as 3D-organ cultures of neural muscular junction and thyroid gland, hypothalamus-pituitary regulation/signaling in aging and stress, regulation of exosome secretion by vitamin A signaling, and hormonal regulation of chromatin remodeling. The ultimate goal of her work is to develop new therapeutic and diagnostic tools and reagents.

Research topics

• Biology
• Genetics
• Medicine
• Gynecology
• Neuroscience
• Cancer research
• Cell biology
• Obstetrics
• Internal medicine

Selected publications

• Targeting CRABP1 Signalosomes in Managing Neurodegeneration

  Biomolecules · 2025-10-09 · 2 citations

  reviewOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Retinoic acid (RA) binds RA (RAR) and Retinoid X (RXR) receptors to elicit biological effects by regulating transcription. RA is also known to have non-canonical activities mediated, primarily, by cellular retinoic acid-binding protein 1 (CRABP1) which forms protein complexes named “CRABP1 signalosomes” to regulate cytosolic signaling independent of RARs/RXRs. This review focuses on therapeutic applications in neurodegeneration by targeting CRABP1 signalosomes including CRABP1–MAPK, CRABP1–CaMKII, CRABP1–eIF2α, and others recently identified from our proteomic studies. The mouse Crabp1 gene is regulated by various epigenetic factors and is important for the health of multiple cell types including motor neurons (MNs). In humans, CRABP1 gene expression is reduced in ALS- and SMA-patient MNs. RA is a therapeutic agent for leukemias and dermatological disorders and is being investigated for managing neurodegenerative diseases, but its therapeutic effects are accompanied by RAR-mediated toxic effects. We have uncovered a novel class of synthetic retinoids that bind CRABP1 without acting on RARs, circumventing RAR-mediated toxic effects. These first-generation CRABP1-selective compounds C3, C4, and C32 target CRABP1–MAPK and/or CRABP1–CaMKII signalosomes. This knowledge, together with emerging structural information, sheds lights on the strategies in designing next-generation CRABP1-signalosome-selective retinoids for the management of neurodegenerative diseases.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Efficacy and safety of Sublingual immunotherapy for allergic rhinitis: an overview of systematic reviews and meta analyses

  European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology · 2025-09-11 · 1 citations

  reviewOpen access

  INTRODUCTION: Reappraisal of Systematic reviews/Meta analyses on Sublingual Immunotherapy for Allergic Rhinitis: Evidence for Clinical Practice and Decision-Making. METHODS: A comprehensive computerized search was conducted across PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, Web of Science, CNKI, VIP, WANFANG, and CBM databases from their inception to June 8, 2025, to systematically identify Systematic reviews and Meta analyses on Sublingual Immunotherapy for allergic rhinitis. A citation overlap matrix was constructed to calculate the corrected covered area, assessing the degree of primary study overlap. The risk of bias, methodological quality, reporting quality, and certainty of evidence in the included Systematic reviews/Meta analyses were evaluated using ROBIS, AMSTAR-2, PRISMA 2020, and GRADE tools, respectively. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses were performed on the primary outcomes to derive a more comprehensive and in-depth understanding. RESULTS: A total of 20 Systematic reviews/Meta analyses were included in this umbrella review. The corrected covered area of 6.391% derived from the citation matrix analysis indicated a modest degree of primary study overlap among the included literature. Risk of bias assessment demonstrated that all incorporated studies exhibited low bias risk. Methodological quality evaluation revealed 2 high-quality, 3 moderate-quality, 14 low-quality, and 1 extremely low-quality study. Reporting quality assessment yielded scores ranging from 22 to 41.5, with 7 studies classified as high-quality, 11 as moderate-quality, and 2 as low-quality reports. The evidence quality assessment revealed that among all evaluated outcomes, 7 were rated as high quality, 19 as moderate quality, 31 as low quality, and 14 as extremely low quality according to the GRADE framework. DISCUSSION: Current evidence demonstrates that Sublingual Immunotherapy exhibits favorable efficacy in improving symptom scores and medication use for allergic rhinitis, with generally acceptable safety profiles despite mild adverse reactions in some cases. Future research should focus on large-scale, real-world studies with diverse outcome measures, investigating variations in regional populations, allergen types, dosage regimens, and treatment durations to further optimize clinical application protocols for Sublingual Immunotherapy.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Single-incision robotic nipple-sparing mastectomy with immediate breast reconstruction: a comprehensive surgical technique and strategy

  Gland Surgery · 2025-08-01 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access

  first reported robotic nipple-sparing mastectomy (R-NSM) with immediate breast reconstruction (IBR), which has since become a mainstream approach in robotic-assisted breast surgery. Existing studies have consistently demonstrated that R-NSM with IBR is a safe and feasible procedure, achieving good aesthetic outcomes, high patient satisfaction, and a low complication rate. However, as R-NSM with IBR is still in its nascent stages, particularly, single-incision R-NSM with IBR, the procedure involves intricate and complex surgical steps. The adoption of this novel technology imposes higher requirements on surgical precision, further increasing the procedural complexity. Standardized protocols and systematic workflows for this procedure are yet to be established. In this study, we provide a comprehensive step-by-step description of the entire surgical process of single-incision R-NSM with IBR through an instructional video and text.

  PublisherDOI

• Step-by-step demonstration of single-incision robotic nipple-sparing mastectomy with immediate breast reconstruction.

  ASVIDE · 2025-09-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• CRABP1 Signalosomes in Non-Canonical Actions of Retinoic Acid—Maintaining Health and Preventing Thyroid Dysfunction in Aging

  Endocrines · 2025-06-03 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Retinoic acid (RA) exerts biological effects through RA receptors (RARs) to regulate transcription. RA also elicits rapid, RAR-independent (noncanonical) activities mediated by Cellular RA Binding Protein 1 (CRABP1) to modulate cytosolic signaling. CRABP1 functions by forming protein complexes, named CRABP1 signalosomes, to modulate signal propagation in a cell type-specific manner. This review summarizes multiple CRABP1 signalosomes and their physiological functions. CRABP1 knockout (CKO) mice develop multiple phenotypes progressively throughout the lifespan. These include altered brain function, obesity, and insulin resistance starting at young adult stages, increased vulnerability to heart failure and altered serum exosome profiles in midlife, and motor deterioration and thyroid dysfunction (hypothyroidism) in later life. The mouse Crabp1 gene is tightly regulated by multiple epigenetic mechanisms, whereas human CRABP1 gene dysregulation is associated with multiple human diseases in which age is an important factor. Further, CRABP1 expression in human and mouse thyroid glands gradually increases with aging. This underscores the clinical relevance of CRABP1 signalosomes in maintaining health and the functions of certain cells/organ systems, especially in the thyroid and during the aging process. The CRABP1 sequence is highly conserved, likely due to its functional constraint in forming various signalosomes; its tight regulation ensures proper expression of CRABP1 required for the forming of various signalosomes critical to the health and functions of multiple cell types/organ systems. Finally, CRABP1-specific (without activating RARs) signaling pathway-selective compounds have been designed. It may be an attractive therapeutic strategy to exploit these CRABP1-specific compounds to modulate selective signaling pathways in certain disease conditions, such as thyroid dysfunction, to maximize efficacy while minimizing retinoid toxicity.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Cognition of decision behavior based on belief state: a case study of implementation in CGF simulation system

  Complex & Intelligent Systems · 2025-06-06 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  In the field of modern military warfare, decision behavior modeling of Agents is a critical approach for simulating the decision-making process of various military entities in battlefield environments. However, existing models suffer from instability, lack of flexibility and adaptability, and difficult to generate effective decisions when facing complex battlefield environments characterized by high dynamics, incomplete information, and large state-action spaces. Therefore, this paper addresses the decision behavior modeling of Agents in above battlefield environments. Firstly, decision behavior of Agents in dynamic environments is time continuous, the UCTCD algorithm is incorporate into the planning method; Secondly, some information is unobservable in some scenarios, an environmental state sampling method named SBS-UCTCD is proposed, the most likely estimate of the current battlefield state is obtained by maintaining a single belief state; Finally, the large tree search space in complex battlefield environments makes it difficult to make decisions in limited time, a hybrid decision behavior modeling method HS-UCTCD is proposed by combining HTN planning and SBS-UCTCD, decomposing high-level tasks through HTN planning and searching optimal actions in refined tasks through SBS-UCTCD, thereby enhancing decision efficiency and reducing decision time. The performance of the proposed environment state sampling and decision behavior planning methods are validated respectively with different AIs and on different maps on the microRTS platform. Experiments show that the proposed decision behavior model enables rapid decision making and effective execution in response to changes in the environment and is more versatile.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Endoscopic Anatomy of the Breast Fascia System: Peripheral-to-Central Approach

  Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery Global Open · 2025-11-01

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  Background: Under the magnification and gasification effects of the endoscope, the breast fascia and ligaments can be clearly identified. However, the anatomical theory of the breast fascia system under endoscopy is rare. Methods: The fascia system of the breast was studied in 165 breasts from 120 patients with endoscopic mastectomy (endoscopy-assisted or robot-assisted procedures in 108 and 12 patients, respectively) and 127 breasts from 64 patients with reduction mammaplasty. Results: The superficial fascia and ligaments were visualized stereoscopically and clearly under the endoscope. By repeatedly observing the endoscopic videos of 120 patients, we found that the percentage of the medial suspensory ligament and lateral suspensory ligament were 60% and 76.3%, respectively. The horizontal septum accounts for 74.5% and the vertical septum for 47.9%. The Cooper ligament, the inframammary fold, the perimeter, and the superficial fascia around the nipple-areola complex could be clearly displayed. We also have observed that endoscopic mastectomy is a surgical procedure that involves separating the breast from the posterior to the anterior space, beginning with the perimeter around the breast followed by the nipple-areola complex in the central area, which represents an inverse dissection pathway relative to embryonic breast development. Conclusions: The peripheral-to-central approach of breast fascia anatomy under endoscopy improves the comprehension of breast fascia anatomy, guiding the surgeon to fully understand and perform endoscopic mastectomy in strict accordance with the anatomical integrity of the fascia.

  PublisherDOI

• The deleted co-maximal subgroup graphs of some groups

  Ricerche di Matematica · 2025-03-22

  article1st author
  PublisherDOI

• CRABP1 Signalosomes in Cellular Stress Response and Health Maintenance

  Journal of Cellular Signaling · 2025-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  CRABP1 is an evolutionarily conserved retinoic acid (RA) binding protein that was originally characterized to bind and sequester cytosolic RA. Classical RA signaling involves RA binding to nuclear retinoic acid receptors (RARs) to regulate gene transcription.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Design of Low altitude Flight Data Security Sharing Platform Based on Blockchain Technology

  Procedia Computer Science · 2025-01-01 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  At present, low-altitude flight data sharing faces problems such as insufficient data security, high risk of data tampering, and imperfect access control. To solve these problems, this study designs and implements a low-altitude flight data security sharing platform based on blockchain technology. First, Hyperledger Fabric is used to build a blockchain architecture to ensure the immutability and traceability of data. Secondly, Solidity is used to write smart contracts to achieve fine-grained data access control and permission management. Finally, the AES-256 encryption algorithm is integrated to encrypt the data transmission process to improve the security of overall data transmission. In the experimental conclusion, the research platform can effectively detect and prevent malicious tampering in terms of data tampering protection. For example, in the data tampering experiment, the tampered hash value is inconsistent with the original hash value, and the tampering behavior is successfully identified. In terms of access control efficiency, the average response time of the administrator is about 0.2 seconds. In the system stability evaluation, when the platform processes 500 concurrent requests, the average response time is 1.5 seconds, the CPU utilization rate reaches 85%, and the memory consumption is 500MB. In the above data conclusions, the feasibility and superiority of the blockchain-based low-altitude flight data security sharing platform in practical applications are demonstrated.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• TR2 nuclear receptor in vitamin A signaling

  NIH · $1.4M · 1999–2028

• NIH Grant P50DA011806

  NIH · $32.0M · 2014

• NIH Grant R29DK046866

  NIH · $501k · 1998

• Studies of nuclear receptor corepressor, NRIP1, in vitamin A signaling pathways

  NIH · $6.9M · 2002–2024

• NIH Grant R01DA011190

  NIH · $3.8M · 2013

Frequent coauthors

• Xiaoyan Liang

  Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University

  76 shared

• Horace H. Loh

  University of Minnesota

  47 shared

• Yajie Chang

  Xiamen University

  44 shared

• Jingjie Li

  Sun Yat-sen University

  40 shared

• Jianhui Chen

  Tsinghua University

  36 shared

• Jiahui Pang

  Sun Yat-sen University

  36 shared

• Ping‐Yee Law

  34 shared

• Nien‐Pei Tsai

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  26 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Microbiology

  Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center

  1986

Awards & honors

• Distinguished McKnight University Professor (2009-present)