Tao Liu

Dr. Tao Liu studied for a PhD degree at The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia 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, Sydney, Australia.

Dr. Liu joined 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. He was promoted to Project Leader in 2009 and Group Leader in 2011.

Broad Research Areas:

• Molecular and cellular biology
• Chromatin modification
• Gene transcription
• Genomics and epigenetics
• Drug discovery
• Experimental cancer therapy

Specific Research Interests:

• Transcriptional modulation of oncogene and tumour suppressor gene expression by histone deacetylases, histone demethylases and histone methyltransferases.
• The roles of histone deacetylases, histone demethylases and histone methyltransferases in the initiation and progression of cancer.
• The anticancer efficacy of histone deacetylase inhibitors and histone methyltransferase inhibitors in cancer cell lines and animal models.
• Discovery of novel histone methyltransferase inhibitors for the therapy of cancer.
• Identification of the mechanisms important for the stability and/or degradation of Myc oncoproteins, the most commonly de-regulated oncoprotein in human cancers.
• Long noncoding RNAs as critical modulators of chromatin function and gene expression.
• Long noncoding RNAs as novel targets for cancer therapy.