X. Shawn Liu received his B.A. in Chemistry from Nankai University in China. He completed his Ph.D. training at Purdue University and Stanford University focusing on the signal transduction mediated by protein kinases and ligand-receptor interactions. As a Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellow in Rudolf Jaenisch’s laboratory at Whitehead Institute | MIT, Shawn developed a series of epigenome editing tools to systematically investigate the functional significance of epigenetic modifications in neurological disorders. In 2020 he joined the Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics at Columbia University as a Joan and Paul Marks, MD ’49 Assistant Professor to start his independent research career.

 

 

Selected Awards

2021-2024       Paul Marks Scholar
2018-2023       NIH Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00, NIMH)
2018                 STAT Wunderkinds Award by The Boston Globe
2018                 Margaret and Herman Sokol Postdoctoral Award by Whitehead Institute | MIT
2018                 Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Fellowship Award (83rd CSHL Symposium on Quantitative Biology)
2018                 Harvard Chinese Life Sciences YONGJIN Distinguished Research Award
2014-2017       Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship
2012                 Arnold Kent Balls Award for Outstanding Graduate Student in Research
2011-2012       Purdue Research Foundation PRF Fellowship Award
2011                 Henry A. Moses Award for Early Publication Award as Graduate Student
2003-2007       The Scholarship of Nankai University

Selected Publications

1. Liu, X.S., Jaenisch, R. (2019). Editing the Epigenome to Tackle Brain Disorders. Trends in Neurosciences. http://doi:10.1016/j.tins.2019.10.003
2. Liu, X.S., Wu, H., Krzisch, M., Wu, X., Graef, J., Muffat, J., Hnisz, D., Li, C.H., Yuan, B., Vershkov, D., Cacace. A., Young, R.A., and Jaenisch, R. (2018). Rescue of Fragile X syndrome by DNA methylation editing of the FMR1. Cell. 173, 1-14. (Highlighted by Nature Reviews Neuroscience and Nature Reviews Drug Discovery)
3. Liu, X.S., Wu, H., Ji, X., Stelzer, Y., Wu, X., Czauderna, S., Shu, J., Dadon, D., Young, R.A., and Jaenisch, R. (2016). Editing DNA methylation in the mammalian genome. Cell. 167, 233-247. (Highlighted by Nature)
4. Liu, X.S., Song, B., Tang, J., Liu, X. (2012). Plk1 phosphorylates Sgt1 at the kinetochores to promote the timely kinetochore-microtubule attachment. Mol. Cell Biol. 32(19), 4053-67.
5. Liu, X.S., Li, H., Song, B., Liu, X. (2010). Polo-like kinase 1 phosphorylation of G2 and S-phase-expressed 1 protein is essential for p53 inactivation during G2 checkpoint recovery. EMBO Rep, 11, 626-632.