Meet the Principal Investigator
Jen Liou, Ph.D.
Dr. Jen Liou received her Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF), under the mentorship of Dr. Arthur Weiss, for her work on dissecting signaling events in lymphocyte activation using biochemical and genetic approaches. During her postdoctoral training under Dr. Tobias Meyer at Stanford University, Dr. Liou studied store-operated calcium entry (SOCE), a signaling pathway essential for lymphocyte activation and many other physiological functions, using systems biology and quantitative live-cell imaging approaches.
Current Lab Members
Wan-Ru Lee
Wan-Ru Lee is the lab manager/research scientist in the Liou lab. She obtained her Ph.D. from Texas A&M University and studied cdc25A gene regulation in breast cancer cells under the mentorship of Dr. Stephen Safe prior to joining the Liou Lab. Wan-Ru is experienced with various imaging techniques, including live-cell confocal imaging, super-resolution imaging, and electron microscopy. Her research interests include characterizing and developing new tools to investigate the functions and regulation of various inter-organelle membrane contact sites.
Wei-Ting Li
Wei-Ting Li joined the Liou lab as a research associate in 2023. He obtained his M.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from National Taiwan University. His study focuses on the interaction mechanism of Nir1 and Nir2 proteins at endoplasmic reticulum-plasma membrane (ER-PM) contact sites and their roles in regulating cellular signaling. Outside the lab, Wei-Ting likes to hang out with friends to have good food or watch baseball games. He is also a cat person.
Jui-Yu Yeh
Jui-Yu Yeh joined the Liou Lab as a junior researcher in 2024. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Physiology at National Taiwan University, with a focus on ER-endosome contact sites, particularly in relation to autophagy and neurological disorders. Additionally, she is developing the Drosophila models to study endosome maturation and ER contact sites in vivo. Outside of the lab, Jui-Yu enjoys hiking and traveling to new places.
Lab Alumni
Elzi Volk
Lab Position: Senior Research Associate/Lab manager
Current Position: Retired
Chi-Lun Chang
Lab Position: Graduate Student/Postdoc
Current Position: Faculty at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Yu-Chun Lin
Lab Position: Summer Student
Shuai Zhang
Lab Position: Postdoc
Current Position: Product Specialist, Malvern Instruments, Shanghai, China
Shino Murakami
Lab Position: Rotation Student
Current Position: Postdoc at Weill Cornell Medicine (Jaffrey Lab)
Nicole Aponte
Lab Position: Summer undergraduate research fellowship (SURF) student
Current Position: Graduate student at MIT
Berfin Azizoglu
Lab Position: Rotation student
Current Position: Postdoc at Stanford University
Ting-Sung Hsieh
Lab Position: Graduate Student
Current Position: Postdoc at UT Southwestern (Tagliabracci Lab)
Yu-Ju Chen
Lab Position: Postdoc
Current Position: Senior Scientist at Pfizer
Carlo G. Quintanilla
Lab Position: Graduate student
Current Position: Science Policy Analyst at Eunice Kennedy shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NCHD)