Yang Liu.

Yang Liu, a professor of bioengineering, has joined the Beckman Institute.

Liu holds an M.S. in chemistry from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Northwestern University. Before joining the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Liu had a 15-year tenure at the University of Pittsburgh in the Departments of Medicine and Bioengineering.

Liu's laboratory specializes in developing multiscale and multimodal optical microscopy techniques to improve precision medicine in areas like cancer detection, prevention, treatment, and inflammation. Her team integrates label-free quantitative phase imaging with advanced microscopy and sensitive imaging probes, complemented by AI, robotic automation, and large-scale image informatics. This powerful strategy enables high-content dynamic phenotyping and sheds light on molecular changes in complex tissue environments, crucial for understanding cancer progression and therapeutic resistance.

Liu's work has received continuous support from the National Institutes of Health and various foundations; her scholarly contributions include 10 U.S. patents and more than 88 peer-reviewed publications.

"I am thrilled to become a member of the Beckman research community, known for its pioneering work in biomedical imaging science. I am deeply honored by this appointment and am eager to collaborate with fellow researchers and contribute to the advancement of cutting-edge research in this field," she said.

"The Beckman community's spirit of innovation and collaboration is something I am looking forward to embracing, as together, we strive to make significant contributions to imaging science and medicine."