Departmental Affiliations
Mengmeng Li, MD, PhD ’25, studies patterns in health data to better understand how diseases develop, including research on ADHD, teen mental health, and pregnancy outcomes.
Research Interests
Adolescent health; Maternal and Child Health; Reproductive Medicine; Obstetrics and Gynecology
Experiences & Accomplishments
Mengmeng Li is an epidemiologist who uses data-driven insights to inform healthcare and policy guidelines. Her research primarily focuses on maternal health and health outcomes from the perinatal to adolescent developmental stages. She has been involved with the Global Early Adolescent Study (GEAS) since the beginning of its longitudinal phase, working across multiple study sites on five continents.
In addition to her work on the GEAS, Mengmeng completed her doctoral training under the mentorship of Dr. Xiaobin Wang at the Center on the Early Life Origins of Disease (CELOD). For her dissertation, she used the Boston Birth Cohort (BBC) to explore risk stratification for childhood Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Her work specifically focused on using maternal and prenatal characteristics from electronic medical records for risk stratification and investigating the potential role of cord blood lipid profiles as biomarkers for ADHD risk.
Beyond her research on the GEAS and her dissertation, Mengmeng collaborates with reproductive endocrinologists nationwide on multiple projects, aiming to identify treatment parameters from assisted reproductive technology that can inform better In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) outcomes. She has published three peer-reviewed articles as the first and corresponding author in leading journals in the field.
She holds a medical degree from Nanjing Medical University in China, an MSPH, and a PhD from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. A complete list of her publications, which summarizes her research activities, is available at the provided link.
Honors & Awards
May 2020 Donald A. Cornely Scholarship, JHSPH
March 2016 Apgar/Bramley/Clifford Scholarship, JHSPH
May 2008 Outstanding Medical School Graduates Award, NMU
Select Publications
Most recent publications
Li M, Beckwith S, Fine SL, Mafuta E, Lian Q, Martinez-Baack M, Moreau C. Understanding Trajectories of Generalized Anxiety Disorder Among Adolescents During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence From China and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. J Adolesc Health. 2024 Dec;75(6S):S24-S34. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2024.09.012. PMID: 39567055.
Li, M., Singh, B., & Baker, V. L. (2022). Association between embryo morphological quality and birth weight for singletons conceived via autologous fresh embryo transfer: an analysis using Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology Clinical Outcomes Reporting System. Fertility and sterility, 118(4), 715–723. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fertnstert.2022.06.017
Li M*, Kort J, Baker VL. Embryo Biopsy and Perinatal Outcomes for Singletons: An analysis of 16,246 frozen embryo transfer cycles reported in SART CORS. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2020 Oct 28:S0002-9378(20)31273-4. DOI: 10.1016/j.ajog.2020.10.043. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33129765. * corresponding author
Khunte, R.*, Li, M.*†, Behr, B. et al. Blastocyst formation rate for Asians versus Caucasians and within body mass index categories. J Assist Reprod Genet 37, 933–943 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-020-01706-9 *co-first author †corresponding author
Li, M., Yu, C., Zuo, X., Karp, C., Ramaiya, A., Blum, R., & Moreau, C. (2022). COVID-19 Experiences and Health-Related Implications: Results From a Mixed-Method Longitudinal Study of Urban Poor Adolescents in Shanghai. The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine, 71(1), 30–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2022.03.016
Erskine, H. E., Maravilla, J. C., Wado, Y. D., Wahdi, A. E., Loi, V. M., Fine, S. L., Li, M., Ramaiya, A., Wekesah, F. M., Odunga, S. A., Njeri, A., Setyawan, A., Astrini, Y. P., Rachmawati, R., Hoa, D. T. K., Wallis, K., McGrath, C., Shadid, J., Enright, M. E., Blondell, S. J., … Scott, J. G. (2024). Prevalence of adolescent mental disorders in Kenya, Indonesia, and Viet Nam measured by the National Adolescent Mental Health Surveys (NAMHS): a multi-national cross-sectional study. Lancet (London, England), 403(10437), 1671–1680. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(23)02641-7