Staff Profile: Li Liu

Li Liu, M.S.
Li Liu, M.S.

Research Scientist, Chemistry

Division of Pre-Clinical Innovation

National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences

National Institutes of Health

Email Li Liu

Biography

Li Liu joined NIH in 2010 and subsequently NCATS, where she now serves as a chemist working on chemical biology efforts and the optimization of small molecules identified from high-throughput screens. She previously worked as a senior associate scientist at Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals, where she prepared a large number of analogs for evaluation to improve the activity profile and bioavailability in numerous projects.

Liu received an M.S. in chemistry at the State University of New York, Binghamton, where she worked with Olivier R. Martin, Ph.D., on the synthesis of novel aza-C-disaccharide as potential glycosidase inhibitors and a-homogalactostatin.

Research Topics

Since joining NCATS, Liu has collaborated on multidisciplinary teams for several projects covering a diverse range of targets. She has worked on novel and well-characterized inhibitors for a variety of targets, including but not limited to:

  • Lipid storage (LDSA)
  • Galactokinase inhibitors (GALK)
  • Ubiquitin-specific protease 2 (USP2)
  • Nrf2 inhibitors
  • Isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1)

Selected Publications

  1. A PHGDH inhibitor reveals coordination of serine synthesis and one-carbon unit fate.
  2. Structure activity relationships of human galactokinase inhibitors.
  3. Discovery and optimization of piperazine-1-thiourea-based human phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase inhibitors.
  4. Assessing inhibitors of mutant isocitrate dehydrogenase using a suite of pre-clinical discovery assays.
  5. Small Molecule Inhibition of the Ubiquitin-specific Protease USP2 Accelerates Cyclin D1 Degradation and Leads to Cell Cycle Arrest in Colorectal Cancer and Mantle Cell Lymphoma Models.