YANG LIU, PhD / BIOLOGICAL DISCOVERY
I explore the molecular signals that connect recognition to action—and the biology waiting to be discovered between them.
Explore the research01 / FUTURE RESEARCH VISION
Microbial evolution has produced an extraordinary range of ways to sense infection and respond. Many of the proteins and signals that make this possible remain unknown.
My future independent research will seek to discover unknown defense and signaling systems, define their mechanisms, and test how their molecular logic can inform human biology and programmable tools.
Which biological systems have we overlooked? I plan to explore public microbial genomes for unfamiliar defense proteins and pathways, using evolutionary context to identify candidates and experimental reconstruction to establish what they do.
MICROBIAL DIVERSITY · DEFENSE SYSTEMS
How does recognition become a cellular response? I aim to uncover new roles for RNA fragments, small molecules, and protein modifications, and determine how these signals control the activity of their effectors.
RNA MESSENGERS · MOLECULAR REGULATION
What can microbial mechanisms teach us across species? I will use conserved molecular features to test hypotheses about poorly understood proteins, then explore whether defined mechanisms can be adapted for programmable biological functions.
CONSERVED MECHANISMS · BIOENGINEERING
02 / SELECTED CONTRIBUTIONS
RNA SIGNALING
I identified a tRNA-derived messenger that activates a protein kinase, connecting RNA cleavage to phosphorylation and transcriptional regulation.
Preprint · Nature (under revision)
View the workMICROBIAL IMMUNITY
As a co-first author, I contributed cryo-EM structures and RNA-seq analyses to work defining prokaryotic Schlafen proteins as signal-activated tRNA nucleases.
Nature Communications · 2026
View the workHUMAN PROTEIN MECHANISMS
My doctoral work combined biochemistry, functional assays, and structural analysis in collaborative studies of Wnt acylation, cholesterol uptake, and Hedgehog release.
Nature · Science Advances · Life Science Alliance
View the work03 / PUBLICATIONS
* Equal contribution where indicated.
Weickert P*, Liu Y*, Strecker J.
Nature Communications 17, 8219 (2026).
Liu Y*, Qi X*, Donnelly L, Elghobashi-Meinhardt N, Long T, Zhou RW, Sun Y, Wang B, Li X.
Nature 607, 816–822 (2022).
Long T*, Liu Y*, Qin Y, DeBose-Boyd RA, Li X.
Science Advances 7, eabh3997 (2021).
Long T, Liu Y, Li X.
Structure 29, 1410–1418.e4 (2021).
Siu RHP*, Liu Y*, Chan KHY, Ridzewski C, Slaughter LS, Wu AR.
Talanta 221, 121593 (2021).
Chen H*, Liu Y*, Li X.
Life Science Alliance 3, e202000776 (2020).
Liu Y, Qin Y, Bouzit I, Yeung A, Chang H, Strecker J.
bioRxiv [Preprint]. Version 1, August 26, 2026. Manuscript under revision at Nature.
Read preprintQin Y*, Liu Y*, Weickert P, Strecker J.
Manuscript under revision at Nature.
04 / ABOUT
Research Fellow
Department of Molecular Biology
Massachusetts General Hospital
I am interested in how cells detect infection and use molecular signals to mount a defense.
My research brings together the discovery of unknown microbial systems and the mechanistic study of human proteins. I use biochemical reconstitution, quantitative experiments, sequencing, and structural analysis to connect what a system does with how it works.
I am currently a Research Fellow in Jonathan Strecker’s laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital. I previously trained in Feng Zhang’s laboratory at the Broad Institute and earned my PhD with Xiaochun Li at UT Southwestern Medical Center.
05 / CONTACT
For scientific conversations and research collaborations, get in touch.
yangliu@molbio.mgh.harvard.edu