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Jen Liou, Ph.D.

Jen Liou, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Endowed Title
Sowell Family Scholar in Medical Research
School
Medical School
Department
Physiology
Graduate Programs
Cell and Molecular Biology
  • 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

    Star Featured Publications

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    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