Background
Dr. Chang Liu is an assistant professor of biophysics and biophysical chemistry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Research in her laboratory is focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms, biological functions, and evolutionary conservation of various coronavirus-host interactions. Relying on a combination of cutting-edge cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) techniques with complementary biophysical, biochemical, cellular, genomic, and computational approaches, her lab is developing new conceptual frameworks and design novel platforms and tools to characterize and identify new host and viral factors involved in the novel mechanisms of gene regulation.
Throughout her career, Dr. Liu has acquired extensive training and rich research experience in coronavirus biology, structural biology, immunology, protein-nucleic acid biochemistry, pharmacology, and genomics. During her graduate studies, Dr. Liu joined Dr. Fang Li’s lab at University of Minnesota, Twin Cities to investigate the receptor recognition and cell entry mechanisms of coronaviruses. After earning her PhD, Dr. Liu started her postdoctoral training with Dr. David Schatz at Yale University, studying the structures, regulation, and evolution of the recombination-activating gene (RAG) recombinase. Dr. Liu joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in August 2022.