Aizhuo Liu
Director, NMR Facility

• B.S. 1984, Jilin University, China
• M.S. 1987, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry (CIAC), Chinese Academy of Sciences
• Ph.D. 1999, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich)
• Assistant/Associate Professor, 1987-1995, CIAC, Chinese Academy of Sciences
• Research Fellow/Research Associate, 1999-2000, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), New York
• Protein NMR Group Leader, 2000-2003, Tularik Inc. South San Francisco

liua@msu.edu
311 Biochemistry Building
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1319
Office: 517-353-4620
FAX: 517-353-9334


NMR Facility

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Aizhuo Liu

Research Interests

Dr. Liu's research interests are in the characterization of structure, dynamic, and intermolecular interaction of proteins and protein/nucleic acid complexes through the use of NMR spectroscopy as a major technique to obtain biologically and chemically relevant information on their behaviors. My research includes the development of more efficient solution NMR experimental methods and the use of them to obtain information on three-dimensional atomic structures of biomacromolecules, particularly integral membrane proteins, molecular structure-function relationships, location and time scales of dynamic processes, location and kinetics of ligand interactions, and the effects of solvent conditions on the conformations of the biomacromolecules. I am also interested in the application of new NMR parameters and techniques to the characterization of molecular recognition and protein/small molecule interactions, which is critical information for drug development.

In parallel to running the MSU Biomolecular NMR Facility, I am conducting the following research projects:

• 1.) Solution NMR study of integral membrane proteins. Membrane proteins play critical roles in many cellular and physiological processes and represent 70% of the targets for drug development. Despite of their biological significance, structural information on membrane proteins is scarce. The paucity of the structural information on membrane proteins is a major hindrance to the understanding of their functions and the development of new medicines. Dr. Honggao Yan of our Department and I are jointly developing integral membrane protein systems for the solution NMR study. We choose multi-drug transporters as model systems. Multi-drug transporter-mediated extrusion of drugs is one of major problems in chemotherapeutic treatment of cancers and infectious diseases. Knowledge about the structure-function relationships in multi-drug transporters is urgently needed for addressing the problem of multi-drug resistance.
  
• 2.) New NMR parameters and techniques for large molecular and supramolecular systems. NMR is an ever-developing technique for the structural and dynamic study of biomacromolecules. MORE

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