معرفی
Kathy Fange Liu, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor with tenure at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. She serves as Co-Director of the Penn Center for Genome Integrity and Group Lead at the Penn Institute for RNA Innovation. The lab combines deep mechanistic studies with innovative therapeutic development across four major research directions: X-Y paired homologous proteins, cancer fusion proteins, ribosome biology, and cross-RNA modification coregulation.
Research highlights include pioneering the concept of RNA modification coregulation (DOI:10.1073/pnas.1913448117), where enzyme-mediated modifications across RNA species demonstrate interconnected networks. Current projects investigate rRNA-modifying enzymes' dual roles in ribosome assembly and genome organization, while developing targeted therapies for fusion oncoproteins like TRIM24-ERG (US patent 63/797,545).
- 2025 Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovator Award Stage 2
- 2024 St. Baldrick's Research Grant
- 2023 Linda Pechenik Montague Investigator
- 2022 Damon Runyon & ACS Scholar awards
- 2019 NIH MIRA R35 award
Lab members include 6 postdocs (Praneeth Bommisetti, Yanze Jian, Sarai Mendoza, Yulia Gonskikh, Hyojeong Hwang, Sheetal Tushir) and 3 graduate trainees. Former lab members Hui Shen (now professor at China Pharmaceutical University), Julian Stoute (Ph.D. 2023), and Jordan Ontiveros (Ph.D. 2022) received multiple fellowships during their tenure.
Key grants include NIH/NHLBI R01 (2022), CZI Multi-Institutional Collaboration (2024), and continuous support from private foundations like CURE Childhood Cancer and Alex's Lemonade Stand. The lab actively develops technologies for RNA modification analysis while maintaining strong collaborative ties across Penn's epigenetics and structural biology programs.
