2011-2012 Postdoctoral Scholar, University of Pittsburgh

2012-2017 Postdoctoral Scholar, University of California San Diego

2017-2023 Assistant Professor, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University

2023-2024 Associate Professor, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University

2024-now Associate Professor, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Tsinghua University

Collective behavior of bacterial communities and their resistance: Bacteria usually live in communities, which is beneficial for their survival. Many communities exist on surfaces, where the bacteria secrete extracellular polymeric substances such as proteins, polysaccharides, and extracellular DNA, which enable the bacteria to form dense aggregates. These aggregates are called biofilms. It was estimated that biofilms accounted for the majority of the bacteria in nature. In addition to being environmentally important, biofilms are also closely related to our health. For example, they are often the cause of infections. Since biofilms are highly tolerant to antimicrobials and to our immune system, those infections are often persistent and are hard to cure. Using interdisciplinary and quantitative approaches, Dr. Liu and his team focus on developing new technologies to study biofilms, investigating the underlying mechanisms and principles governing their spatiotemporal properties, and the implications for human health.

2018 Chinese National Talent Program

2018 Outstanding Young Scholar Award, Qiu-Shi Science & Technologies Foundation

1. Z. Wang, L. Zeng, S. Hu, Q. Hu, Y. Zhang, J. Liu. Community-specific cell death sustains bacterial expansion under phosphorus starvation. Nature Chemical Biology (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-024-01796-x

2. Y. Zhang, Y. Cai, X. Jin, Q. Wu, F. Bai, J. Liu. Persistent glucose consumption under antibiotic treatment protects bacterial community. Nature Chemical Biology (2025) 21:238-246.

3. Q. Hu, L. Huang, Y. Yang, Y. Xiang, J. Liu. Essential phage component induces resistance of bacterial community. Science Advances (2024) 10:eadp5057.

4. Y. Zheng, R. Chai, T. Wang, Z. Xu, Y. He, P. Shen, J. Liu. RNA polymerase stalling-derived genome instability underlies ribosomal antibiotic efficacy and resistance evolution. Nature Communications (2024) 15:6579.

5. T. Wang, P. Shen, Y. He, Y. Zhang, J. Liu. Spatial transcriptome uncovers rich coordination of metabolism in E. coli K12 biofilm. Nature Chemical Biology (2023) 19: 940-950.

6. T. Wang, P. Shen, R. Chai, Y. He, J. Liu. Profiling of bacterial transcriptome from ultra-low input with MiniBac-seq. Environmental Microbiology (2022) 24:5774–5787.

7. Y. Zhang, Y. Cai, L. Zeng, P. Liu, L. Z. Ma, J. Liu. A Microfluidic Approach for Quantitative Study of Spatial Heterogeneity in Bacterial Biofilms. Small Science (2022) 2:2200047.

8. J. Liu, R. Martinez-Corral, A. Prindle, D.-Y. D. Lee, J. Larkin, M. Gabalda-Sagarra, J. Garcia-Ojalvo, G. M. Süel, Coupling between distant biofilms and emergence of nutrient time-sharing. Science (2017) 356:638–642.

9. J. Liu, A. Prindle, J. Humphries, M. Gabalda-Sagarra, M. Asally, D. D. Lee, S. Ly, J. Garcia-Ojalvo, G. M. Süel, Metabolic co-dependence gives rise to collective oscillations within biofilms. Nature (2015) 523:550–554.

Complete list of publications: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6710-2605