Yutao Liu

Dr. Liu's research interest is to identify genetic risk factors related to age-related complex human diseases, including but not limited to primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG), keratoconus, exfoliation glaucoma (XFG), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease), and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Dr. Liu is also interested in the role of genomic structural variation (i.e., DNA copy number variants) in human disease. He was funded by the Duke Translational Medicine Institute and Glaucoma Research Foundation to study the effects of DNA copy number variants (CNV) in glaucoma. This research is currently funded by American Health Assistance Foundation (AHAF). The research for exfoliation glaucoma is currently supported by The Glaucoma Foundation (TGF). He is currently characterizing genetic risk variants identified through large scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) using bioinformatics, molecular genetics, and animal models. He is also interested in applying next-generation sequencing, such as exome sequencing, to identify genetic mutations in multiplex families affected by ocular disorders, such as keratoconus.

Dr. Liu is also the Director of Duke Molecular Genomics Core (MGC) lab(http://wwwchg.duhs.duke.edu/research/molecular.html). The MGC is a state-of-the-art facility that offers a variety of experimental platforms to facilitate genomics research, including but not limited to gene expression profiling for mRNA and microRNA, DNA genotyping, next generation DNA/RNA sequencing, and DNA methylation profiling. For more information, please visit the MGC website (http://wwwchg.duhs.duke.edu/research/molecular.html).