Haiyan Liu

Professor, School of Life Sciences
University of Science & Technology of China

Tel: 86-551-3607450
Fax: 86-551-3607451
E-mail: hyliu@ustc.edu.cn

Personal Profile

Haiyan Liu was born in Sichuan Province, China. He received his BS degree in Biology in 1990 and PhD degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 1996, both from USTC. Between 1993 and 1995 he was a visiting graduate student in Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of ETH, Zurich (Switzerland). From 1998 to 2000 he was post-doctoral research associate at Department of Chemistry, Duke University (USA) and Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics UNC-Chapel Hill (USA). Since 2001, he has been a professor of computational biology at School of Life Sciences, USTC.

Research Interests

We are interested in developing and applying comutational tools for the study of structure, dynamics and interaction of biomolecules. One current focus is to develop efficient and accurate methods to simulate conformation equlibria in solution, and to apply such methods in force field improvements as well as in functional studies. Another focus is to improve protein design, including statistical energy functions, negative design and modular design.

To test and/or apply these tools, we collorborate with experimentalists (protein dynamics and conformational equilibria), or carry out experiments ourselves (protein sequence design) . For example, we are especially interested in designing highly focused sequence libraries for the efficient screening of new and specific molecular interactions. We are also attempting to integrate such designed/screened interactions with other molecular modules to create artificial signal-processing proteins that can be utilized in synthetic biological systems.

Selected Publications

1. Zhang, Yinliang; Zhao, Zheng*; Liu, Haiyan*; Deriving Chemically Essential Interactions Based on Active Site Alignments and Quantum Chemical Calculations: A Case Study on Glycoside Hydrolases; ACS Catalysis, 2015, in press.

2. Xiong, Peng; Wang, Meng; Zhou, Xiaoqun; Zhang, Jiahai; Chen, Quan*; Liu, Haiyan*; Protein design with a comprehensive statistical energy function and boosted by experimental selection for foldability; Nature communications 2014, 5: 5330.

3. Hu, Yue; Liu, Haiyan*; Case Study on Temperature-Accelerated Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Ligand Dissociation: Inducer Dissociation from the Lac Repressor Protein;Journal of Physical Chemistry A 2014, 118: 9272-9279.

4. Liu, Zexian; Wang, Yongbo; Zhou, Changhai; Xue, Yu; Zhao, wei*; Liu, Haiyan*, Computationally characterizing and comprehensive analysis of zinc-binding sites in proteins; Biochimica Et Biophysica Acta-Proteins and Proteomics 2014,1844: 171-180.

5. Wan, Wen; Li, Lulu; Xu, Qianqian; Wang, Zhefan; Yao, Yuan; Wang, Rongliang; Zhang, Jia; Liu, Haiyan; Gao, Xiaolian*; Hong, Jiong*; Error removal in microchip-synthesized DNA using immobilized MutS;Nucleic Acids Research 2014, 42: e102.

6. Hu, Hao*; Liu, Haiyan; Pitfall in Quantum Mechanical/Molecular Mechanical Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Small Solutes in Solution; Journal of Physical Chemistry B 2013, 117: 6505-6511.

7. Mai, Zhongxing; Liu, Haiyan*; Random Parameter Sampling of a Generic Three-Tier MAPK Cascade Model Reveals Major Factors Affecting Its Versatile Dynamics; Plos One 2013, 8:e54441.

8. Ma, Rui; Wang, Jichao; Hou, Zhonghuai*; Liu Haiyan*; Small-Number Effects: A Third Stable State in a Genetic Bistable Toggle Switch; Physical Review Letters 2012,109: 248107.

9. Huang, Wei; Liu, Haiyan*; Optimized grid-based protein-protein docking as a global search tool followed by incorporating experimentally derivable restraints; Proteins-Structure Function and Bioinformatics 2012,80: 691-702.

10. Liu, Haiyan*; Regulating and Programming Biological Systems With Modular Molecular Parts; Progress in Biochemistry and Biophysics 2012,39: 119-125.

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