CIMR-Shiyu Liu

Research Group

Shiyu Liu

shiyu.liu(at)cimrbj.ac.cn

Assistant Investigator

shiyu.liu(at)cimrbj.ac.cn

B.S. in Biology, Peking University, China

Ph.D. in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Duke University, USA

Work Experience

2025.1-Present

Assistant Investigator, Chinese Institutes for Medical Research, Beijing, China

2021.12-2025.1

Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University School of Medicine, USA

Research Direction

The Liu Laboratory at CIMR focuses on metabolic flux analysis as its core technology, integrating it with advanced physiological, multi-omics, and genetic approaches, aiming to quantitatively uncover the fundamental principles underlying metabolic networks in living systems and to design innovative therapeutic strategies to tackle a broad spectrum of metabolic diseases.

Major Research Projects

1. Further optimize algorithms, software, and experimental pipelines to enhance the efficiency, precision, and user-friendliness of metabolic flux analysis.

2. Apply metabolic flux analysis to study whole-body metabolic networks, uncovering complex metabolic behaviors in animals and humans, with a focus on metabolic diseases such as obesity and gout.

3. Integrate metabolic flux analysis with spatial metabolomics and single-cell metabolic networks to investigate metabolic heterogeneity within organs.

Major Contributions

1. Constructed a multi-tissue metabolic network to quantify the contributions of glucose and lactate to the TCA cycle in various mouse organs (Cell Metabolism, 2020).

2. Analyzed energy fluxes in Drosophila to uncover how a methionine-restricted diet impacts longevity and fertility (Nature Aging, 2024, second author).

3. Developed a novel methodology to evaluate the accuracy of flux analysis results and designed an improved pipeline to enhance its precision and robustness (Nature Metabolism, 2024).

Representative Publications *：Co-first author; #：Co-corresponding author

Liu S, Liu X & Locasale JW. Quantification of metabolic activity from isotope tracing data using automated methodology. Nature Metabolism, 2024. DOI: 10.1038/s42255-024-01144-2

Wei F, Liu S, Liu J, Sun Y, Allen A, Reid MA & Locasale JW. Separation of reproductive decline from lifespan extension. Nature Aging, 2024, 4: 1089-1101. DOI: 10.1038/s43587-024-00674-4

Liu S & Locasale JW. Delineating a role for methionine metabolism in colorectal cancer. Cancer Research, 2023, 83: 3833–3834. DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-23-3169

Liu S, Dai Z, Cooper DE, Kirsch DG & Locasale JW. Quantitative Analysis of the Physiological Contributions of Glucose to the TCA Cycle. Cell Metabolism, 2020, 32: 619-628.e21. DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2020.09.005