Xinli Liu

Xinli Liu is an Associate Professor of Pharmaceutics at the University of Houston (UH) College of Pharmacy since 2016 and serves as Associate Director of the Institute for Drug Education and Research at UH since 2021. She previously held positions at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Pharmacy, including Assistant Professor (2008-2015) and Tenured Associate Professor (2015-2016). Her research focuses on molecularly targeted drug delivery systems to treat cancer metastases, infectious diseases, and autoimmune conditions. Key areas include nanoparticle design, vaccine adjuvants, spatial pharmacometabolomics, and overcoming biological barriers like the blood-brain barrier.

Education: Postdoctoral Fellow at USC (2007), PhD from University of Kentucky (2004), B.S. from Lanzhou University (1999). Her work employs multidisciplinary approaches combining nanotechnology, cancer biology, and imaging techniques. Recent innovations include inhalable vaccines against sarbecoviruses and nanoparticle-based STING agonists for respiratory virus protection.

Liu Lab research emphasizes four pillars: 1) Barrier-Overcoming Nanotherapeutics, 2) Multidrug Resistance Solutions, 3) Immunoengineering for Cancer/Infectious Diseases, and 4) Precision Medicine Tools via Mass Spectrometry Imaging. She has contributed to patents on vaccine development, blood-brain barrier drug delivery, and coronaviral membrane protein complexes.

Her funding portfolio includes NIH grants and industry collaborations, though specific grants are not detailed here. The Liu Lab maintains active collaborations in virology, oncology, and biomedical engineering, with a focus on translational research from preclinical models to clinical applications.