[ About Us]
Research in the Liu lab aims to develop novel
strategies for the
effective control of tuberculosis (TB).
TB,
AIDS, and malaria are the so called ‘Big Three’ infectious diseases of
global
significance. Currently
one-third of the
world population is latently infected with TB and 2 million people die
from TB each
year. The
increasing incidents of
multiple-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extensively-drug resistant TB
(XDR-TB)
and the deadly combination of TB-HIV coinfections have placed enormous
challenge to current TB control program. As such, new therapeutic
interventions
and vaccination technology are urgently needed.
Central to the success of Mycobacterium
tuberculosis (M. tb) as a
human
pathogen is its ability to employ multiple virulence mechanisms to
infect and
persist in the host for extended period of time. The Liu lab is working on identifying
various virulence
mechanisms of M. tb, and on understanding
how M. tb coordinates these virulence mechanisms
to
achieve successful human infection and disease progression. In
addition, we are
working on new strategies for the development of next generation of TB
vaccine
and novel compounds for new drug development.