Yang Liu

Yang Liu is a Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), affiliated with the Grainger College of Engineering. She holds additional roles as an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cancer Center at Illinois, and a member of the Beckman Institute. Liu earned her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University (2006) and an M.S. in Chemistry from the University of Chicago (2001). Her research focuses on bioimaging at multi-scale, including biophotonics, cancer detection, and chromatin structure analysis. She leads the Biomedical Optical Imaging Laboratory, pioneering super-resolution microscopy and quantitative phase imaging for precision medicine applications.

Her work integrates cutting-edge optical techniques with AI and robotics to study cellular and molecular mechanisms of disease. Notable contributions include developing drift-free super-resolution imaging methods and nanoscale nuclear architecture mapping for early cancer detection. Liu serves on federal review panels (e.g., NIH ISD Study Section) and editorial boards (e.g., Biomedical Optics Express). Her lab’s innovations aim to bridge microscopy, computational biology, and clinical diagnostics.

Research interests span:

• Multi-scale optical microscopy and imaging platforms
• Super-resolution and quantitative phase imaging
• Early cancer detection via chromatin and nuclear structure analysis
• AI-driven systems biology and image analysis

Recent publications emphasize RNA-protein interactions (MYC oncogene studies), nanoscale imaging techniques, and translational applications in oncology. Liu’s lab collaborates across engineering, medicine, and computational science to advance precision diagnostics and therapeutic insights.