Lingyun Liu Ph.D. Assistant Professor
Chemical and Biomolecular
Engineering Office: Phone: (330)972-6187 Fax: (330)972-5856 Email: lliu@uakron.edu Mailing address: 200 E. Buchtel Commons Chemical and Biomolecular
Engineering
Ph.D. (2007) Bioengineering,
MS (2000) Biomedical Engineering,
BS (1998) Biomedical Engineering,
Research interests:
Biointerfaces
Biosensors
Biomaterials
Tissue Engineering
Representative Publications
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Lingyun
Liu,
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Lingyun
Liu, Buddy D. Ratner, E. Helene Sage and Shaoyi
Jiang, Endothelial cell migration on
surface-density gradients of fibronectin, VEGF, or
both proteins, Langmuir, 2007;
23: 11168-11173.
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Lingyun Liu, Chunlin
Qin, William T. Butler, Buddy D. Ratner and Shaoyi
Jiang, Controlling the orientation of bone osteopontin
to modulate osteoblast adhesion via its specific
binding with collagen I, Journal
of Biomedical Materials Research A, 2007; 80A: 102-110.
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Lingyun
Liu, Joy G. Ghosh, John I. Clark and Shaoyi Jiang, Studies
of aB crystallin subunit dynamics by surface plasmon resonance, Analytical Biochemistry,
2006; 350(2): 186-195.
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Shenfu
Chen, Lingyun Liu, Shaoyi Jiang, Strong
resistance of oligo(phosphorylcholine)
self-assembled monolayers to protein adsorption, Langmuir,
2006; 22(6): 2418-2421.
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Lingyun
Liu, Shengfu Chen, Cecilia M. Giachelli,
Buddy D. Ratner and Shaoyi Jiang, Controlling
osteopontin orientation on surfaces to modulate
endothelial cell adhesion, Journal of Biomedical Materials Research A, 2005; 74A(1): 23-31.
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Victoria
Lockhart, Lingyun Liu and Shaoyi Jiang, Interactions
between secreted protein, acidic and rich in cysteine
(SPARC), and type I collagen identified by surface plasmon
resonance biosensor, Journal of
Undergraduate Research in Bioengineering, 2004; 4(2): 69-74.
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Shengfu
Chen, Lingyun Liu, Jian Zhou and Shaoyi Jiang, Controlling
antibody orientation on charged
self-assembled monolayers, Langmuir, 2003; 19(7):
2859-2864.
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Jianhua
Gu, Junfu Liu, Hua Lv, Yiwen Chen, Lingyun Liu, Peng Wang, Jianming Ma and Zuhong Lu, Enhancement of the sensitivity of surface plasmon resonance biosensor with colloidal gold labeling
technique, Supramolecular Science, 1998; 5: 695-698.
Current Research Activities
The major research interests of our lab are in the areas of biomolecular interfaces,
biomaterials, and biosensors. Biomolecular interfaces drive most biological
processes both in vitro and in vivo. For example, they will
determine the fate of implanted biomaterials and the limit of surface-based
detections. The research in the lab focuses on (a) understanding and
controlling interfacial phenomena and properties of biological and chemical
systems at the molecular level and (b) developing and applying new biomaterials
and biosensor techniques for biomedical and engineering applications.
(1) Molecular
engineering of surfaces for SPR sensing and detection
SPR
sensor, which allows for fast, real-time, quantitative and label-free
detection, has been extensively used as a platform for biosensor development. Surface chemistry for the immobilization
of biomolecular recognition elements is the key to
the success of a sensor. The major challenges in sensing and detection are the
ability of a sensor to achieve the low detection limit (i.e., high sensitivity)
and to avoid false alarms (i.e., high specificity). Our lab is exploring
several novel surface functionalization approaches to
realize both high sensitivity and high specificity, by controlling the
orientation/conformation of the ligands immobilized
on a super-nonfouling background. The
newly developed platforms will be used for various applications, such as food
safety monitoring and early disease diagnostics.
(2) Study the behavior of cells on
well-controlled engineered surfaces
The research focuses on controlling protein orientation, conformation and distribution to modulate cell behavior for biomaterials and tissue engineering applications, in which surface modification and characterization, protein-surface interactions, protein-protein interactions and protein-cell interactions are involved. To achieve biomaterials that promote normal wound healing, biomaterial surfaces must be developed that control the orientation and conformation of proteins with precision so that the body will specifically recognize them. We are exploring different approaches to control the orientation and conformation of functional proteins on various surfaces. In the preferred orientation and conformation, the functional domains of protein molecules will be presented to cells to the greatest extent and promote healing. Protein distribution, or gradient, plays an important role in cell migration. Cell migration is essential in many physiological processes such as angiogenesis, wound healing, and tumor metastasis. Particularly, angiogenesis is critical to wound healing (since the newly formed blood vessels provide nutrition and oxygen to growing tissues) and thus is critical to the success of implanted biomaterials and tissue-engineered constructs. We are studying how the gradients of extracellular matrix proteins and growth factors affect the migration of endothelial cells. Findings from this project will provide useful information for directing cell migration into tissue-engineered constructs and can be potentially used for those applications where cell migration is critical, such as angiogenesis.
(3)
Develop non-fouling surfaces/materials for biomedical applications
The development of nonfouling materials and surfaces is critical to many biomedical applications, such as biomaterials, tissue scaffolds, drug delivery carriers and biosensors. For example, a very low amount, at the scale of 1 ng/cm2, of protein adsorption to the synthetic blood vessel could lead to the platelet adhesion and accumulation, thrombosis, and therefore failure of the device. The lab is exploring several newly developed non-fouling materials, including mixed charged or zwitterionic self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) and polymers, for their resistance to protein adsorption and cell adhesion. Long-term goal of this project is on the development of drug delivery carriers and tissue scaffolds based on the novel nonfouling materials.
Positions Available
Several PhD student positions are available immediately in the group. Researches in the lab mainly focus on engineering biointerfaces (e.g., controlling the cell-protein-surface interactions) for biosensor, biomaterial and tissue engineering applications (e.g., disease detection, and biocompatibility enhancement). Students with Chemical Engineering degree and bio-related research experiences are preferred while those with Bioengineering / Biomedical Engineering/ Material / Polymer degree will also be considered. Research experience in one or more of the following areas is a plus: organic synthesis, SPR biosensor, surface engineering, biomaterials and tissue engineering. Assistantship will be provided. Interested applicants please email the CV, transcripts, TOEFL and GRE scores to Dr. Liu at lliu@uakron.edu.
Last updated: April 10, 2008