Judy Liu

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Judy Shih-Hwa Liu is the Sidney A. Fox and Dorothea Doctors Fox Professor of Ophthalmology and Neuroscience at Brown University. She works on the cortical malformations that cause epilepsy.

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Education and early career

Liu earned a Bachelor of Science at Yale University. She moved to New York for her graduate studies, and completed a PhD and MD at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. After her MD she completed a medical internship in internal medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She was appointed as a neurological resident at Beth Israel in 2001.

Research

Liu studies epilepsy which arises from focal cortical dysplasia. [1] She investigates the surgically removed tissues and found that they are influenced by circadian rhythm. The protein CLOCK (Circadian Locomotor Output Cycles Kaput) is a transcription factor that is important in regulating circadian rhythm in the suprachiasmatic nucleus. [2] Liu analysed the transcriptome of surgically removed tissues and found differences in the RNA of CLOCK. [3] They created mouse models, one with neurons defunct in CLOCK and the other with neurons lacking inhibitory cells. [3] The mice without limited CLOCK suffered from epilepsy similar to humans. [3] In 2017 she was awarded a Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy award to study the molecular CLOCK and sleep-associated seizures. [4] She contributed to the 2012 book Jasper's Basic Mechanisms of the Epilepsies. [5]

She was awarded the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation NASRAD Young Investigator Award and a Whitehall Foundation grant to study the cell biology that underlies the development of axons. [6] [7] In 2013 she was awarded a grant to study the molecular mechanisms that prevent the initiation of seizures. [8] The grant looks to identify the changes in mRNA and microRNA in people who suffer from cortical dysplasia and tuberous sclerosis. [8]

References

  1. ↑ "Liu, Judy". vivo.brown.edu. Retrieved 2019-01-06.
  2. ↑ "Circadian Gene Linked to Severe Epilepsy in Children". The Scientist Magazine®. Retrieved 2019-01-06.
  3. 1 2 3 "Faulty Neuronal Time-Keeping Causes Epilepsy". Neuroscience from Technology Networks. Retrieved 2019-01-06.
  4. ↑ "Loss Of Function Of The Circadian Molecular Clock May Underlie The Sleep/Epilepsy Relationship". CURE Epilepsy. 2018-08-24. Retrieved 2019-01-06.
  5. ↑ Jasper, Herbert Henri (2012-06-29). Jasper's Basic Mechanisms of the Epilepsies. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN   9780199746545.
  6. ↑ "Young Investigator Grants" (PDF). www.bbrfoundation.org. Retrieved 2019-01-06.
  7. ↑ "Posting Expired: Neurobiology/Neuroscience". trialect.com. Retrieved 2019-01-06.
  8. 1 2 "Valdez collaboration to search for genetic causes of epilepsy". Fralin Biomedical Research Institute. Retrieved 2019-01-06.
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