Julie Liu

Active Mentor - currently hosting PULSe students for laboratory rotations and recruiting PULSe students into the laboratory; serves on preliminary exam committees

Current Research Interests:

Prof. Liu's research focuses on developing protein-based biomaterials for tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, and surgical adhesives. Prof. Liu has developed a family of recombinant proteins that incorporate structural repeats to confer mechanical properties and bioactive domains to elicit the desired cell response. To fully utilize these proteins in tissue engineering applications, her research has investigated the relationship between amino acid sequence and subsequent function.

Selected Publications:

S. Hollingshead and J.C. Liu, “pH-Sensitive Mechanical Properties of Elastin-based Hydrogels,” Macromolecular Bioscience, 1900369, (2020).

C. Twitchell, T. Walimbe, J.C. Liu, and A. Panitch, “Peptide-modified Chondroitin Sulfate Reduces Coefficient of Friction at Articular Cartilage Surface,” Current Research in Biotechnology, 2, 16-21 (2020).

R.S.-C. Su, E.E. Gill, Y. Kim, and J.C. Liu, “Characterization of Resilin-like Proteins with Tunable Mechanical Properties,” Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials, 91, 68-75 (2019).

R.S.-C. Su, R.J. Galas, C.-Y. Lin, and J.C. Liu, “Redox-responsive Resilin-like Hydrogels for Tissue Engineering and Drug Delivery Applications,” Macromolecular Bioscience, 19, 1900122 (2019).

C.-Y. Lin and J.C. Liu, “Incorporation of Short, Charged Peptide Tags Affects the Temperature Responsiveness of Positively-charged Elastin-like Polypeptides,” Journal of Materials Chemistry B, 7, 5245-5256 (2019).

S. Hollingshead, C.-Y. Lin, and J.C. Liu, “Designing Smart Materials with Recombinant Proteins,” Macromolecular Bioscience, 17, 1600554 (2017).

M.J. Brennan, B.F. Kilbride, J.J. Wilker, and J.C. Liu, “A Bioinspired Elastin-based Protein for a Cytocompatible Underwater Adhesive,” Biomaterials, 124, 116-125 (2017).

Y. Kim and J.C. Liu, “Protein-engineered Microenvironments Can Promote Endothelial Differentiation of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells in the Absence of Exogenous Growth Factors,” Biomaterials Science, 4, 1761-1772 (2016).

N. Vazquez-Portalatin, C.E. Kilmer, A. Panitch, and J.C. Liu, “Characterization of Collagen Type I and II Blended Hydrogels for Articular Cartilage Tissue Engineering,” Biomacromolecules, 17, 3145-3152 (2016).

C.-Y. Lin and J.C. Liu, “Modular Protein Domains: An Engineering Approach Toward Functional Biomaterials,” Current Opinion in Biotechnology, 40, 56-63 (2016).