Liu, Jintao-School of Medicine, Tsinghua University

Microbiology and Infectious Diseases

Liu, Jintao

Associate Professor, Tsinghua University, School of Medicine

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Tel: 010-62790245
E-mail: JintaoLiu@tsinghua.edu.cn
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Microbiologist with a quantitative mind

Dr. Liu got bachelor’s degree in physics from University of Science and Technology of China in 2004, got PhD in physics from University of Pittsburgh in 2011, did postdoctoral research at University of Pittsburgh between 2011-2012 and at University of California San Diego between 2012-2017. He became Assistant Professor at Tsinghua University in 2017, and is member of the Tsinghua-Peking Center for Life Sciences. Dr. Liu’s research focuses on bacterial communities. He developed a new method of studying bacterial biofilms, pioneered the investigation on the dynamical properties of biofilms, and discovered new mechanisms of cooperation and competition among the bacteria. His works were published in peer-reviewed journals including Nature, Science, and Cell, and were widely reported by well-known scientific journals and popular media.

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 innovative technologies to investigate biofilms, investigating the underlying mechanisms and principles governing their spatiotemporal properties, and the implications for human health.

1. 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). doi:10.1038/s41589-023-01282-w

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

3. 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 2, 2200047 (2022).

4. R. Martinez-Corral, J. Liu, G. M. Süel, J. Garcia-Ojalvo, Bistable emergence of oscillations in growing Bacillus subtilis biofilms. PNAS 115, E8333–E8340 (2018).

5. 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 356, 638–642 (2017).

6. J. Humphries, L. Xiong, J. Liu, A. Prindle, F. Yuan, H. A. Arjes, L. Tsimring, G. M. Süel, Species-Independent Attraction to Biofilms through Electrical Signaling. Cell 168, 200-209.e12 (2017).

7. A. Prindle, J. Liu, M. Asally, S. Ly, J. Garcia-Ojalvo, G. M. Süel, Ion channels enable electrical communication in bacterial communities. Nature 527, 59–63 (2015).

8. 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 523, 550–554 (2015).

More publications: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=(Jintao+Liu)+and+(Tsinghua+or+Diego+or+Pittsburgh)