The LIU Group
Xinyu Liu is currently an assistant professor of chemistry at University of Pittsburgh and a member of cancer immunology at University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. He completed his undergraduate degree in chemistry and chemical engineering in 2002 from Kyoto University, Japan. During his undergraduate study, he worked with Prof. Roger Read at School of Chemistry, University of New South Wales, Australia, in 2000 and completed his undergraduate research thesis on the synthetic application of stereoselectively generated CF3-substituted oxirane with Prof. Tamejiro Hiyama and Prof. Masaki Shimizu at Kyoto University. He then moved to Zurich Switzerland and obtained his Dr. sc. degree
under the direction of Prof. Peter H. Seeberger on carbohydrate chemistry and biology in 2007, at Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, where he was awarded ETH silver medal for his outstanding doctoral thesis. From 2007 to 2010, he was an Ernst Schering Foundation postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Christopher T. Walsh at Harvard Medical School where he obtained trainings in biochemistry and mechanistic enzymology. He also obtained training in bacterial genetics from Advanced Bacterial Genetics course at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in summer 2010. He joined the Department of Chemistry at University of Pittsburgh in August 2010.
Honors and Awards Samuel and Emma Winters Foundation Biomedical Research Award (2012), Competitive Medical Research Award UPMC (2012), American Society of Pharmacognosy Travel Award (2012), ETH Medal for Outstanding PhD Thesis, ETH Zürich, Switzerland (2008), Ernst Schering Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship (2008–2010), Swiss National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship (2007), Roche Excellence Award, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, Switzerland (2007), Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Student Abroad (2007), Swiss Society for Biochemistry Travel Award (2006), Federation of European Biochemistry Society Travel Award (2006), [i]lab Award, Sanofi-Aventis, Germany (2005), Bosworth Prize in Physical Chemistry, UNSW, Australia (2000), Summer Research Scholarship, School of Chemistry, UNSW, Australia (2000), Kyoto University Travel Grant for Students Studying Abroad (1999), BetterHome Association Scholarship (1999–2002), Iwakuni Foundation Scholarship (1998–2002), Academic Excellence Scholarship, Ministry of Japan (1998).
