Biography
A/Prof Jacob (Yanfei) Qi completed his PhD at the Centenary Institute, University of Sydney, where he investigated pancreatic lipid signalling in type 2 diabetes. He then undertook postdoctoral training at the University of New South Wales, focusing on lipid metabolism, storage, and transport in the context of obesity and lipodystrophy.
Since establishing his independent research program in 2020 at the Centenary Institute, A/Prof Jacob Qi has led an internationally collaborative team, leveraging his expertise in lipidology and lipidomics to uncover how lipids contribute to disease pathogenesis, treatment, and risk assessment. In 2025, he joined the Heart Research Institute, where his team now focuses on lipid regulation of cardiometabolic conditions and their interplay with other age-related diseases. Contributing significantly to the scientific community, A/Prof Qi’s research has been published in leading journals such as PNAS, Molecular Cell, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Cell Reports, Advanced Science, and Biotechnology Advances. His strategic vision and impactful work have been recognised through a series of competitive grants and fellowships, including the NHMRC Project Grant, NHMRC Ideas Grant, NSW CVD Project Grant, ARC Discovery Project Grant, Salteri/Kellerman Fellowship, and the Centenary Future Leader Fellowship.
A/Prof Qi also plays an active leadership role in the biomedical research community. He currently serves as President of the Australian Association of Chinese Biomedical Scientists (331 members), leads the lipidomics substudy of the international PREVIEW prediabetes consortium in collaboration with 15 institutions across Europe and ANZ, and holds appointments as a Board Member of the Australian Lipid Network, a Scientific Advisory Board Member of Sydney Mass Spectrometry and the Brand Promotion Director of academic press - IMR.