Clinical and Research Background
Dr. Liu’s clinical specialties are clinical cytogenetics and clinical molecular genetics (ABMGG) for both constitutional genetic disorders in prenatal and postnatal settings and acquired genetic disorders including solid tumors and hematological neoplasms. Dr. Liu’s research interest is in translational medicine using genomic approaches to aid the understanding of the genetic and molecular etiologies of human diseases. Projects in Dr. Liu’s laboratory currently include: (1) Next generation sequencing solutions for cytogenetics to characterize numerical and structural chromosomal aberrations as well as copy neutral absence/loss of heterozygosity in human diseases. (2) Understanding the biological causes for the discordance between diagnostic genetic test results and non-invasive prenatal screening (NIPS) using cell-free DNA (3) Using RNA-seq to characterize gene fusions and juxtapositions in cancer, especially novel fusions in sarcoma (4) Identifying new molecular markers for hepatocellular carcinoma with various etiologies. The main goals are to develop molecular diagnostics using both conventional genetics methods and new genomic approaches to aid in precision diagnostics for personalized care. Dr. Liu is also involved in the training of medical residents and fellows and at the University of Washington.
Board Certifications
Clinical Molecular Genetics, American Board of Medical Genetics and Genomics
Clinical Cytogenetics, American Board of Medical Genetics and Genomics
Academic and Medical Appointments
Associate Professor, Department of Pathology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 2016-Present
Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 2009-2016
Co-Director of Clinical Cytogenetics and Genomics Laboratory, University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle, WA, 2009-Present
Senior Research Scientist, Departments of Biology and Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 2002-2007
Education and Training
Clinical Molecular Genetics Fellow, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 2012-2013
Postdoctoral Fellow, Cancer Genetics, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 2007-2009
Clinical Cytogenetics Fellow, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 2007-2009
Postdoctoral Fellow, Yeast Genetics and Molecular Evolution. Departments of Biology and Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 1995-2002
State University of New York, College of Environmental Science & Forestry, Syracuse, NY, Molecular Biology, Ph.D., 1995
Wuhan University, Hubei, China, Genetics, Master of Science, 1989
Wuhan University, Hubei, China, Cell Biology, Bachelor of Science, 1986
Publications
Latest publications from PubMed