Associate Professor

Personal Statement

Xiangyu Liu received his Ph.D. from Peking University Health Science Center (2002-2010, Eight-year program), where his research interests focused on epigenetics，protein (both histone and non-histone proteins) posttranslational modifications. After graduation, he was further trained in Columbia University in the city of New York with Dr. Shan Zha as a Postdoctoral Research Scientist (2011-2015) and Associate Research Scientist (2015-present). Currently, his research is focusing on: 1) Mechanism of DNA double strand break (DSB) repair such as non-homologous end joining (NHEJ), homologous recombination (HR) and alternative end joining (A-EJ). 2) Mechanism of DNA ends resection, chromosomal translocation and subsequent lymphoma development. 3) Constructing mouse models using conventional and CRISPR-Cas9 techniques, and using these mouse models to study tumor suppression genes such as p53 or to screen for new tumor suppression genes. 4) Applying CRISPR-Cas9 technique to screen drugs that targeting DNA repair pathway. Up to date, he has published several papers in prestige journals such as PNAS, Mol Cell, Nature Communications, Journal of Experimental Medicine and Cancer Cell. He is also the recipient of the “Career Development Program” award from the Leukemia&Lymphoma Society, the largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding research, finding cures and ensuring access to treatments for blood cancer patients.

Research Interests:

Long-term goal is to use molecular and genetic approach to understand the relationships among different DNA repair pathways and how they coordinate to maintain genome stability and prevent human diseases such as ageing and cancer. In general, I am interested in how cells respond to different DNA damaging stress (such as nuclease mediated cutting, topoisomerase inhibitors, irradiation or radiomimetic drugs, etc) and how different repair pathways determine the final fate of the cells. In particular, in the next few years, I expect to continue my study firstly on 53BP1 and CtIP and their functional interactions with other DNA damage response proteins to explore the mechanism of DNA repair in the face of different kinds of DNA damage. In the long run, I plan to extend my research looking for new and novel factors from human patients that play vital roles in DNA repair and tumorigenesis.

Research Projects:

NSFC (China) Project (81972661)

Role of CtIP in chromosome translocation and cancer development

20200101-20231231

Xiangyu Liu, PI                                                                                                                                    

NSFC (China) Project (82273149)

Role of SETD2 mediated Dot1L methylation in DNA repair

20230101-20261231

Xiangyu Liu, PI

Selected Peer-reviewed Publications:

1.Qian Zhu, Qiaoyan Yang, Hui Wang, Xiaopeng Lu, Lili Tong, Ge Liu, Yantao Bao, Xingzhi Xu, Luo Gu, Xiangyu Liu* and Wei-Guo Zhu*. SETD2-mediated H3K14 trimethylation promotes ATR activation and stalled replication fork restart in response to DNA replication stress. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2021 (in press)

2.Xiangyu Liu#, Xiaobin S. Wang#, Brian J. Lee, Foon K. Wu-Baer, Xiaohui Lin, Zhengping Shao, Verna M. Estes, Jean Gautier, Richard Baer, Shan Zha. CtIP is dispensable for end joining but essential for lymphocyte development. Journal of Experimental Medicine 2019 May 16. pii: jem.20181139. doi: 10.1084/jem.20181139.

3.Xiangyu Liu, Zhengping Shao, Wenxia Jiang, Brian J. Lee, Shan Zha. PAXX promotes KU-accumulation at DNA breaks and is essential for end-joining in XLF-deficient mice. Nature Communications. 2017 Jan 4; 8:13816.

4.Wenxia Jiang#, Jennifer L. Crowe#, Xiangyu Liu#, Satoshi Nakajima, Yunyue Wang, Chen Li, Brian J. Lee, Richard L. Dubois, Chao Liu, Xiaochun Yu, Li Lan, Shan Zha. Differential Phosphorylation of DNA-PKcs Regulates the Interplay between End-Processing and End-Ligation during Nonhomologous End-Joining. Molecular Cell. 2015 Apr 2;58(1):172-85.

5.Xiangyu Liu#, Wenxia Jiang#, Richard L. Dubois, Kenta Yamamoto, Zachary Wolner, Shan Zha. Overlapping functions between XLF repair protein and 53BP1 DNA damage response factor in end joining and lymphocyte development. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2012 Mar 6;109(10):3903-8.