BMed, MMed, PhD

Originally trained as a medical practitioner specializing in neurology, Dr Tao Liu studied for a PhD degree at UNSW on the role of inflammatory mediators in chronic pain due to nerve injury. He then worked on the role of MIC-1, a new member of the transforming growth factor beta superfamily, in cancer cell proliferation, survival/apoptosis and metastasis.at St. Vincent's Centre for Applied Medical Research.

Dr Liu moved to Children's Cancer Institute Australia for Medical Research as a Senior Research Officer in 2003. Since 2004, he has been focusing his research on the roles of histone deacetylases, histone demethylases, histone methyltransferases and long noncoding RNAs in modulating gene transcription and tumourigenesis, and the roles of histone deacetylase inhibitors and histone methyltransferase inhibitors as anticancer agents. In the past five years, Dr Liu has been awarded research grants from various external funding bodies including Cure Cancer Australia, Cancer Council NSW, Cancer Institute NSW, National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC, Australia) and National Institutes of Health (USA). He was promoted to Project Leader in 2009 and Group Leader in 2011.

Over the past decade, Dr Liu has authored a number of peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals including the well-known Lancet, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, PLoS Genetics and Cell Death & Differentiation.