Biography

Download Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Jen Liou received her PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from University of California at San Francisco (UCSF), under the mentorship of Dr. Arthur Weiss, for her work on dissecting signaling transduction events in lymphocyte activation using biochemical and genetic approaches. During her postdoctoral training under Dr. Tobias Meyer at Stanford University, Dr. Liou studied cellular signaling using systems biology and quantitative live-cell imaging approaches.

She collaborated with four colleagues and generated an siRNA library targeting 2,304 human signaling proteins. She used this library to address a long-standing question in lymphocyte activation and calcium signaling: the molecular mechanism underlying store-operated calcium (SOC) signaling.

Dr. Liou identified STIM1/2 as the calcium sensors in the endoplasmic reticulum for SOC signaling and characterized the activation mechanisms of STIM1/2. Her work represented a major breakthrough that set the direction of many laboratories in the field.

An article in the Summer 2009 edition of Stanford Medicine, "Anatomy of an Experiment: Chasing Down the Cell’s Gatekeepers" describes Dr. Liou’s research.

Education

Undergraduate
National Taiwan University (1992), Zoology
Graduate School
National Taiwan University (1994), Zoology
Graduate School
University of California-San F (2001), Biology

Research Interest

  • Calcium Signaling
  • High-Resolution Imaging in Live Cells
  • Inter-Organelle Communication
  • Membrane Contact Sites
  • Phosphoinositide Metabolism

Publications

Featured Publications LegendFeatured Publications

Myristoylation-Dependent Palmitoylation of the Receptor Tyrosine Kinase Adaptor FRS2a.
Barylko B, Chen YJ, Hennen J, Angert I, Chen Y, Mueller JD, Sun HQ, Taylor CA, Liou J, Yin H, Albanesi JP, Biochemistry 2019 Jun 58 25 2809-2813
STING-mediated disruption of calcium homeostasis chronically activates ER stress and primes T cell death.
Wu J, Chen YJ, Dobbs N, Sakai T, Liou J, Miner JJ, Yan N, J. Exp. Med. 2019 Apr 216 4 867-883

Honors & Awards

  • Endowed Scholar in Biomedical Research
    UT Southwestern Medical Center (2009)

Professional Associations/Affiliations

  • American Society for Cell Biology