Contact Information
405 N Mathew Ave, M/C 251
Urbana, IL 61801
Research Interests
Label-free quantitative phase imaging, super-resolution fluorescence microscopy, and multiscale spatial omics to study cancer initiation and drug resistance
Research Description
The laboratory of Dr. Yang Liu focuses on developing multiscale optical microscopy techniques, spanning from nanoscale to mesoscale, to advance precision medicine. We work on improving the imaging speed, throughput and precision of label-free quantitative phase imaging (QPI) and single-molecule localization-based super-resolution microscopy, via new instrumentation and computational imaging. We couple label-free high-content imaging of morpho-dynamics with highly multiplexed fluorescence and super-resolution imaging to study a broad range of biophysical properties of chromatin organization, nuclear lamina, and nuclear pore complex in normal and pathological states and understand how cancer initiates and how cancer cells develop resistance as a response to therapeutic agents.
Education
Ph.D., Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, 2006
M.S., Chemistry, University of Chicago, 2001
Additional Campus Affiliations
Professor, Bioengineering
Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Professor, Biomedical and Translational Sciences
Professor, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
Recent Publications
Hahm, E. R., Jacobs, B. L., Singh, K. B., Kim, S. H., Parikh, R. A., Normolle, D. P., Dhir, R., Oyebamiji, T., Sun, X., Liu, Y., Appleman, L. J., Gelhaus, S. L., & Singh, S. V. (2026). Bench-to-Bedside Evaluation of Sulforaphane/BroccoMax on Fatty Acid Synthesis in Prostate Cancer. Cancer Prevention Research, 19(5), 281-292. https://doi.org/10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-25-0488
Li, S., Wang, Z., Nguyen, P., Wang, Y., Zhao, Y., Wang, Y., Chen, Y., Huang, H., Wang, X., Zhang, Y., Huang, Y., Pattarayan, D., Zhang, M., Liu, Y., Li, S., & Yang, D. (2026). MYC-bound enhancer RNAs in cis regulate gene transcription and tumorigenesis. Science Advances, 12(17), eaeb5147. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aeb5147
Nguyen, P., Ma, H., Gotsis, D. S., Chen, M., Zhang, C., Showrav, T. T., Schwartz, M., Diergaarde, B., Schoen, R. E., Brand, R. M., Zhang, H., & Liu, Y. (2026). A Versatile Multiplexed Immunofluorescence Strategy for Efficient, Host-Independent, and Scalable Spatial Protein Profiling. Small Methods, 10(14), Article e00009. https://doi.org/10.1002/smtd.202600009
Chen, M., Ma, H., Sun, X., Schwartz, M., Brand, R. E., Xu, J., Gotsis, D. S., Nguyen, P., Moore, B. A., Snyder, L., Brand, R. M., & Liu, Y. (2025). Multimodal whole slide image processing pipeline for quantitative mapping of tissue architecture and tissue microenvironment. NPJ Imaging, 3(1), Article 26. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44303-025-00088-w
Ma, H., Nguyen, P., & Liu, Y. (2025). A Versatile Drift-Free Super-Resolution Imaging Method via Oblique Bright-Field Correlation. Advanced Science, 12(7), Article 2412127. https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202412127