Ji-long Liu

Biography

Professor Ji-Long Liu obtained a Bachelor degree from Beijing Forestry University in 1992, a Master degree from China Agricultural University in 1995 and a Ph.D. degree from Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Zoology in 2000. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Connecticut from July 2000 to December 2002 and at Carnegie Institution for Science Department of Embryology from January 2003 to August 2007. He set up his laboratory and held a Medical Research Council (MRC) Programme Leader-track position at the University of Oxford in August 2007. He was promoted as a Tenured MRC Programme Leader at the University of Oxford in January 2012 (Tenured Programme Leader is the highest academic position in the UK MRC system). In June 2016, Professor Liu joined the School of Life Science and Technology at ShanghaiTech University as a Tenured Full Professor.Pro. Liu is appointed as Vice Dean in April 2017.

Research Interest

The cytoophidium (plural “cytoophidia”), meaning the cellular snake in Greek, represents a novel type of organelles. In 2010, three groups including us discovered that CTP synthase is compartmentalised into the cytoophidium. Cytoophidia have existed on our planet for at least 3 billion years and are evolutionarily conserved from bacteria to human. Using the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster, the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe and human cells as prime model systems, we will study the mechanisms by which metabolic enzymes such as CTP synthase and IMP dehydrogenase are compartmentalised within a cell. CTP synthase and IMP dehydrogenase have been attractive targets for developing agents against cancer, virus and parasites. We will investigate how various metabolic enzymes are assembled into cytoophidia and how the cytoophidium and its kind are linked to metabolic regulation and cancer biology. http://cytoophidia.org