Xin Liu, Ph.D.
Associate Professor

Dr. Liu is an Associate Professor in the Cecil H. and Ida Green Center for Reproductive Biology Sciences of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and in the Department of Biophysics. He is W.W. Caruth, Jr. Scholar in Biomedical Research of the UT Southwestern Medical Center and a member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Dr. Liu did his graduate research with Dr. Ronen Marmorstein at the Wistar Institute and University of Pennsylvania, where he received his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 2007. Dr. Liu was a Jane Coffin Childs postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Roger Kornberg at Stanford University from 2008 to 2011. Dr. Liu joined the faculty of UT Southwestern in 2011.

Dr. Liu studies the molecular and biophysical mechanisms of chromatin, epigenetics and transcription in development and disease. A current focus is to understand how the developmentally regulated heterochromatin is established, maintained and inherited. To achieve this goal, the Liu lab uses various research tools, such as biochemical reconstitution, X-ray crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy, proteomics and next-generation sequencing, to study large assemblies of relevant protein-protein and protein-nucleic acid chromatin complexes.

Undergraduate

Nanjing University - China (2000), Biochemistry

Graduate School

University of Pennsylvania (2007), Chemistry

• Chromatin and Nuclear Organization
• Epigenetics and Transcription
• Non-coding RNAs
• Structural Biology

Featured Publications

Unique Structural Platforms of Suz12 Dictate Distinct Classes of PRC2 for Chromatin Binding.

Chen S, Jiao L, Shubbar M, Yang X, Liu X Mol. Cell 2018 Mar 69 5 840-852.e5

Conserved RNA-binding specificity of polycomb repressive complex 2 is achieved by dispersed amino acid patches in EZH2.

Long Y, Bolanos B, Gong L, Liu W, Goodrich KJ, Yang X, Chen S, Gooding AR, Maegley KA, Gajiwala KS, Brooun A, Cech TR, Liu X Elife 2017 Nov 6

Structural basis of histone H3K27 trimethylation by an active polycomb repressive complex 2.

Jiao L, Liu X Science 2015 Oct 350 6258 aac4383

Initiation complex structure and promoter proofreading.

Liu X, Bushnell DA, Silva DA, Huang X, Kornberg RD Science 2011 Jul 333 6042 633-7

Structure of an RNA polymerase II-TFIIB complex and the transcription initiation mechanism.

Liu X, Bushnell DA, Wang D, Calero G, Kornberg RD Science 2010 Jan 327 5962 206-9

The structural basis of protein acetylation by the p300/CBP transcriptional coactivator.

Liu X, Wang L, Zhao K, Thompson PR, Hwang Y, Marmorstein R, Cole PA Nature 2008 Feb 451 7180 846-50

Structure of the retinoblastoma protein bound to adenovirus E1A reveals the molecular basis for viral oncoprotein inactivation of a tumor suppressor.

Liu X, Marmorstein R Genes Dev. 2007 Nov 21 21 2711-6

A Dimeric Structural Scaffold for PRC2-PCL Targeting to CpG Island Chromatin

Chen S, Jiao L, Liu X, Yang X, Liu X Mol. Cell 2020 Jan 17

Structural dissection of an interaction between transcription initiation and termination factors implicated in promoter-terminator crosstalk.

Bratkowski M, Unarta IC, Zhu L, Shubbar M, Huang X, Liu X J. Biol. Chem. 2017 Nov

Polycomb repressive complex 2 in an autoinhibited state.

Bratkowski M, Yang X, Liu X J. Biol. Chem. 2017 08 292 32 13323-13332

• Rita Allen Scholar
  Rita Allen Foundation (2012)
• CPRIT Scholar in Cancer Research
  Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas (2011)
• W.W. Caruth, Jr. Scholar in Biomedical Research
  UT Southwestern Medical Center (2011)
• Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Fellowship
  The Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research (2008)
• Dr. Monica H.M. Shander Award
  The Wistar Institute (2006)