Yue Liu

Yue Liu is an Assistant Professor in Food Microbiology at Wageningen University & Research. His work focuses on understanding microbial systems in food fermentation, particularly the role of bacteriophages, extracellular vesicles, and vitamin K2 production in Lactococcus lactis and related species. He has contributed to projects on prophage-host interactions, stress response mechanisms, and functional food development through microbial engineering.

Research Interests:

• Extracellular vesicles' immune modulation and biotechnological applications
• Bacteriophage biology and prophage activation
• Metabolic engineering of lactic acid bacteria for vitamin K2 production
• Microbial stress responses in food fermentation environments

Recent work highlights include studies on Streptococcus thermophilus vesicles' immune effects (2025), flavonoid accumulation in tea grafting (2025), and ethylene glycol metabolism in Propionibacterium (2024). His publications span topics like tailless phage dynamics (2022), laboratory-evolved Lactococcus mutants (2021), and membrane vesicle applications (2018).

Advising/Grants:

• Co-promotor for PhD projects on extracellular vesicles in food fermentation, gut microbiome health, and pathogenic bacteria
• Active in projects exploring vitamin K2 delivery via probiotics and membrane vesicle-based therapies

Labs/Teams: Collaborates with groups led by Prof. Abee and Smid on microbial systems biology, food safety, and functional microbiology.