Fudong Liu
Professor
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
McGovern Medical School
Department of Neurology
Research interests in Dr. Liu’s lab focus on immune responses to, and sex differences in CNS disorders such as Stroke, Neurodegenerative diseases, neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (nHIE), COVID-19, etc. The neuroinflammation research in this group spans from neonates to the aged throughout the lifespan, and investigates how aging impacts the neuroimmunology in CNS disorders. We explore molecular/cellular regulatory pathways underlying the neuroinflammation to suppress pro-inflammatory and/or promote anti-inflammatory activation of immune cells, both in the central and in the peripheral. Clinically, many CNS disorders are sexually dimorphic, including nHIE, stroke, Alzheimer’s Disease, and COVID-19. Our research differentiates sex hormonal vs. sex chromosomal effects in these sex dichotomies, explores underlying genetic/epigenetic signaling pathways, and aims to develop sex specific therapeutic strategies to these diseases. Recently we have found several X-linked genes that escape from the X chromosome inactivation are involved in the disease sensitivity; cutting-edge technologies (CUT&RUN, scRNA/snRNA sequencing, CYTOF, etc.) and animal models (FCG, XY*, etc.) are being used to facilitate these studies.
McGovern Medical School Faculty
Education & Training
M.D. - Bengbu Medical College China - 1992
M.S. - Wannan Medical College