Three main research interests of the Liu group are (1) Tumor organoid-based high-content screening system using multiphoton imaging(2) Single-particle/molecule tracking of biomolecules in living cells(3) Biomaterials, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine

The Texas Taiwanese Biotechnology Association (TTBA) was found by Shao-Ting Yen and Yen-Liang Liu in 2014 to connect Taiwanese in the field of biotechnology in Texas. TTBA also bridge Taiwanese biotechnology communities nationwide.

Major projects:1. Developing a multiphoton multimodal imaging system for high throughput organoid images2. Establishing the cell model of pancreatic cancer organoids Achievements:1. Awardee of Young Scholar Fellowship (Columbus program), Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan

Major achievements:1. 13 peer-reviewed articles, 1 US patent app, 8 speeches and 7 posters, 10 awards ($38950)2. Developing physical biomarkers for circulating tumor cell diagnostics2. Co-developed a 2-photon 3D single-particle tracking microscope, published in Nat. Commun 3. Developed an algorithm to dissect and classify biomolecule trajectories, published in Biophys. J4. Developed DNA biosensors to detect DNA mutation and methylation, published in JACS5. Mentored 9 undergrads who won 2 poster awards and 8 undergraduate research fellowships

Worked with an orthopedic surgeon, Hwa-Chang Liu, MD, Ph.D. and participated in clinical trials1. Created stem cell-derived cartilage to treat knee osteoarthritis (Phase I trial, cell therapy) and tracked the patients’ recovery after treatment. This project lead to a startup company ($6M seed fund) with a family of patents from US, JP, CN, EP, and ES. 2. Evaluated the effect of topologically injected tranexamic acid on reducing the allogeneic blood transfusion in total knee replacement (36% reduction in blood transfusion)

• Co-advised by 3 professors from bioengineering, biophysics, and pharmacology• Worked on 3 interdisciplinary projects and published 4 papers and 1 US patent 1. Fabrication of biomaterial scaffolds with uniform pore size using microfluidics 2. Lung tissue engineering using mouse stem cells & scaffolds 3. Cartilage regeneration in SCID mice using the biomaterial scaffold