ALVIN Y. LIU, PhD
Research Associate Professor
Department of Urology
Institute for Stem
Cell and Regenerative Medicine
School of Medicine University of Washington
Affiliated with the Institute for Systems Biology
Education & Training
Dr. Liu received his doctoral degree at the University of California, Los Angeles on the evolution of globin genes under Dr. Winston Salser. He received a Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Cancer Research fellowship to study antigenic variation in trypanosomes under Dr. Piet Borst at the University of Amsterdam and the Netherlands Cancer Institute. Prior to his appointment at UW, he worked on human-mouse chimeric antibodies at INGENE, Santa Monica, and differential gene expression of prostate cancer at Cytometrics, San Diego.
Research Interests
Dr. Liu’s lab studies gene expression of urologic cancer cells (prostate, bladder and kidney), stem cell and differentiation, epithelial stromal cell-cell interaction, and cancer biomarkers. The lab developed a procedure to isolate specific cell populations from organ tissue for downstream investigations such as transcriptome analysis and cell biology.
Public Database:
SCGAP Urologic Epithelial Stem Cells Project
http://scgap.systemsbiology.net/
Research Funding
Biomarkers for Prostate and Bladder Cancer
NIH U01, PI: Alvin Liu. This project uses quantitative proteomics to
identify secreted proteins that could be used as urinary biomarkers
for cancer. This research is a Biomarker Development Laboratory
of the NCI EDRN group:
http://edrn.nci.nih.gov/
Mechanisms and Markers of Prostate Cancer Metastases
NIH P01, PI: Paul H. Lange, Dr. Liu is co-director with Dr. Leroy Hood
of the Institute for Systems Biology of project I. The goals
of this study are to determine the gene expression of the major normal
prostate cell types and cancer cells, and to identify cancer specific
genes.
Urologic Epithelial Stem Cells – Prostate
Morphogenesis and Cytodifferentiation
NIH U01, PI: Alvin Liu. The goals are to characterize epithelial
stem cells in the human prostate and bladder and the functional development
of glandular epithelium under the influence of stromal mesenchyme cells
and their secreted factors, and to determine the transcriptome of such
stem cells isolated from prostate tissue specimens.
CD Expression in Prostate Cancer
NIH R21, PI: Alvin Liu. The goals are to characterize prostate
cancer cell types in primary tumors and metastases by expression of cell
surface cluster designation (CD) antigens; and to develop an in vitro
cell culture system to study prostate epithelial cell differentiation.
Use of ProteinChipTM to Discover Secreted Protein Markers for Prostate
Cancer Diagnosis
CaP CURE Foundation, PI: Alvin Liu. The goal of this study is to
find protein markers for the diagnosis of prostate cancer.
Selected Publications
Oudes AJ, Campbell DS, Sorensen CM, Walashek LS, True LD, Liu AY. Transcriptomes of human prostate cells. BMC Genomics 7 (2006) 92.
Goo YA, Goodlett DR, Pascal LE, Worthington KD, Vessella RL, True LD, Liu AY. Stromal mesenchyme cell genes of the human prostate and bladder. BMC Urology 5 (2005) 17.
Oudes AJ, Roach JC, Walashek LS, Eichner LJ, True LD, Vessella RL, Liu AY. Application of Affymetrix array and massively parallel signature sequencing for identification of genes involved in prostate cancer progression. BMC Cancer 5 (2005) 86.
Liu AY, Zhang H, Sorensen CM, Diamond DL. Analysis of prostate cancer by proteomics using tissue specimens. J Urol 173 (2005) 73-8.
Liu AY, Roudier MP, True LD. Heterogeneity in primary and metastatic prostate cancer as defined by cell surface CD profile. Am J Pathol 165 (2004) 1543-56.
Liu AY, Brubaker KD, Goo YA, Quinn JE, Kral S, Sorensen CM, Vessella RL, Belldegrun AS, Hood LE. Lineage relationship between LNCaP and LNCaP-derived prostate cancer cell lines. Prostate 60 (2004) 98-108.
Freedland SJ, Seligson DB, Liu AY, Pantuck AJ, Paik SH, Horvath S, Wieder JA, Zisman A, Nguyen D, Tso C, Palotie AV, Belldegrun AS. Loss of CD10 (neutral endopeptidase) is a frequent and early event in human prostate cancer. Prostate 55 (2003) 71-80.
Liu AY, True LD. Characterization of prostate cell types by CD cell surface molecules. Am J Pathol 160 (2002) 37-43.
Liu AY, Peehl DM. Characterization of cultured human prostatic epithelial cells by cluster designation antigen expression. Cell Tissue Res 305 (2001) 389-97.
Liu AY. Differential expression of cell surface molecules in prostate cancer cells. Cancer Res 60 (2000) 3429-3434.
Liu AY, LaTray L, van den Engh G. Changes in cell surface molecules associated with in vitro culture of prostatic stromal cells. Prostate 45 (2000) 303-12.
Liu AY, True LD, LaTray L, Ellis WJ, Vessella RL, Lange PH, Higano CS, Hood L, van den Engh G. Analysis and sorting of prostate cancer cell types by flow cytometry. Prostate 40 (1999) 192-9.
Liu AY, True LD, LaTray L, Nelson PS, Ellis WJ, Vessella RL, Lange PH, Hood L, van den Engh G. Cell-cell interaction in prostate gene regulation and cytodifferentiation. Proc Natl Acad Sci 94 (1997) 10705-10.
Liu AY, Corey E, Vessella RL, Lange PH, True LD, Huang GM, Nelson PS, Hood L. Identification of differentially expressed genes: increased expression of transcription factor ETS-2 in prostate cancer. Prostate 30 (1997) 145-53.
Liu AY, Corey E, Bladou F, Lange PH, Vessella RL. Prostatic cell lineage markers: emergence of BCL2+ cells of human prostate cancer xenograft LuCaP 23 following castration. Int J Cancer 65 (1996) 85-9.
Affiliations and Services
American Urological Association
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Dr. Liu served as ad hoc reviewer for the Canadian Prostate Cancer Research, UK Medical Research Council, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency Atlantic Innovation Fund, and the Department of Defense.
Dr. Liu is a member of the editorial board of Asian Journal Andrology, and served as ad hoc reviewer for JAMA, Proteomics, Clin Chim Acta, BMC Cancer, Prostate, and J Urol.
Curriculum Vitae [50K PDF*]
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Contact Information:
Department of Urology
Box 356510
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195-6510
Ph:
(206) 732-1268
Fax: (206) 732-1299