Professor Liu’s research interests emphasize on the development of novel classes of materials and devices as bioelectronics for use in biological and biomedical applications. Specifically, he is interested in exploring advanced nanoelectronics/photonics, polymer chemistry, tissue engineering and genome engineering to seamlessly integrate man-made devices with living systems for understanding, controlling and, ultimately, enhancing the performance of biological systems through the tissue-electronics interface. His first 5-year focus will be on the development of bioelectronic tools/platforms for mapping and controlling single-cell activities from a significant amount of cells across the entire organs in behaving animals with cell-type specificity. Using these tools, Professor Liu aims to study the relationship between single-cell electrophysiology and gene expression with whole-organ level function/dysfunction to specifically address questions in neuroscience, heart diseases and developmental disorders.

Professor Liu obtained his B.S. degree from Fudan University in China, in 2009, where his research with Prof. Dongyuan Zhao focused on the development of superparamagnetic nanomaterials for bio-imaging. He obtained his Ph.D. degree, along with a short postdoctoral stay, with Prof. Charles M. Lieber at Harvard University in 2014. His Ph.D. thesis focused on the development of tissue-like, silicon-based nano-bioelectronics for nanoelectronics-innervated synthetic tissues and syringe-injectable mesh electronics as a gliosis-free and chronically stable brain probe. He moved to Stanford University in 2015 to work as a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Zhenan Bao, Prof. Karl Deisseroth and Prof. Anson Lee, where he utilized polymer chemistry and genomic engineering to enable novel electrical interfaces with brain and heart for their activity recording.

Open positions: Perspective students and postdoctoral candidates with background in soft electronics, electrophysiology, genomic engineering, developmental biology, organic synthesis and optics are encouraged to apply. Please contact Prof. Liu by email directly.