Judy Liu, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Neurology, Co-Section Head of Epilepsy
Miller Family Distinguished University Chair in Neurological Disease
Dr. Liu is a physician-scientist whose work focuses on how disruptions in brain development lead to epilepsy. She joined UT Southwestern in August 2025 as Co–Section Head of Epilepsy. Nationally recognized for her research, Dr. Liu studies both common causes of epilepsy and rare genetic disorders. Her work explores how widespread changes in gene expression and metabolism disrupt neural circuits, resulting in seizures.
She collaborates closely with family advocacy organizations, with a particular focus on SLC13A5 epilepsy and ASH1L-related neurodevelopmental disorders. In addition to laboratory modeling, she conducts clinical phenotyping studies to better define the spectrum of rare diseases.
Dr. Liu earned her medical degree and Ph.D. at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, completed a neurology residency at Harvard’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and gained advanced training through a postdoctoral fellowship in neural development at Harvard Medical School. She began her faculty career at Children’s National Medical Center, then moved to Brown University in 2017, where she served as associate director of the Center for Translational Neuroscience and held the Sidney A. Fox and Dorothea Doctors Fox Associate Professorship of Ophthalmology and Visual Science.
Her research has been continuously funded since 2013 by organizations including the Epilepsy Foundation, the Whitehall Foundation, Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy (CURE), and the National Institutes of Health (NINDS and NIMH). A board-certified neurologist, she maintains an active clinical practice.
Beyond her research and clinical work, Dr. Liu is widely recognized for her professional service and mentorship. She serves as the 2025 Chair of the Scientific Program Committee for the American Epilepsy Society and was the Principal Investigator of an NINDS R25 training grant that supports the development of future basic and clinical neuroscientists. Many of her trainees now hold tenure-track or tenured faculty positions.
Haruki Higashimori, Ph.D.
Research Scientist
Dr. Higashimori uses electrophysiology and various imaging techniques to help decipher the mechanisms causing epilepsy. His research mainly focuses on the activity-dependent protein regulation in tripartite synapses that can lead to synaptic alterations in the epileptic circuit during the developmental process. Outside the lab, Dr. Higashimori enjoys reading books. He would love to ride a horse but hasn’t found one yet.
Han Zheng, Sc.M.
Research Assistant
Ms. Zheng earned her Bachelor of Science degree in pharmacology from the University of California Santa Barbara, and obtained her master’s degree in biotechnology from Brown University. Her research interest is in rare genetic diseases and mechanisms underlying pathogenesis that might be targeted and changed to improve disease treatment outcome. When she’s not in the lab, she enjoys reading, skiing, playing video games, and becoming a couch potato with her cat, Potato.