About

Wansheng Liu is a Professor of Animal Genomics at the Department of Animal Science at Pennsylvania State University. His research interests encompass animal genetics, structural, functional, and comparative genomics, with a particular focus on the mammalian Y-chromosome and male fertility. His current projects include the functional and structural characterization of the ruminant Y-chromosome, Y-chromosome variations and their applications in livestock reproductive health, and the functional analysis of the PRAME/PRAMEY gene family during spermatogenesis in cattle and mice. Liu has contributed significantly to understanding the gene content, expression, and function of the Y-chromosome in livestock species, and his work extends to epigenetics and the molecular mechanisms underlying male reproductive processes.

Research topics

• Genetics
• Biology
• Cell biology
• Demography
• Cancer research
• Animal science
• Agronomy
• Andrology

Selected publications

• The enhanced multi-tissue atlas of regulatory effects in cattle

  Research Square · 2026-04-17

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Substituent Modulation of Contorted Hexa‐ <i>peri</i> ‐benzocoronene‐Based Conjugated Metal–Organic Frameworks for High‐Performance Capacitor

  Angewandte Chemie International Edition · 2025-03-25 · 6 citations

  articleOpen access1st author

  Abstract Two‐dimensional conjugated metal–organic frameworks (2D c‐MOFs) exhibiting graphite‐like van der Waals stacked layers have been recognized as a new type of crystalline conductive materials and have shown rapid progress in the last decade. However, the purposive design and modulation of their conductive properties and related application performance remains a challenge. Herein, we present a new type of 2D c‐MOFs with contorted conformation and substituent‐modulated structures for highperformance of the capacitor. Octahydroxy‐hexa‐ peri ‐benzocoronene (HBCOH) with a contorted graphene nanosheet core is designed and synthesized as the ligand. The F‐substituted 2D c‐MOF FHBCOH‐Cu demonstrates superior crystallinity and conductive properties exhibiting a record‐breaking specific capacitance of 943 F g −1 at a rate of 0.5 A g −1 . The improved crystallinity, enhanced conductivity, and pore environment control enabled by halogen substitution, combined with the contorted conformation synergistically accomplish high performance of 2D c‐MOFs as electrode materials in supercapacitors. This study introduces a novel molecular design strategy for the construction of 2D c‐MOFs‐based high‐performance energy storage materials.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Farm Animal Genotype–Tissue Expression (FarmGTEx) Project

  Nature Genetics · 2025-03-17 · 38 citations

  reviewOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Collagen Hydrogel Tube Microbioreactors for Cell and Tissue Manufacturing

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2025-01-12 · 3 citations

  preprintOpen access

  The production of mammalian cells in large quantities is essential for various applications. However, scaling up cell culture using existing bioreactors poses significant technical challenges and high costs. To address this, we previously developed an innovative 3D culture system, known as the AlgTube cell culture system, for high-density cell cultivation. This system involves processing cells into microscale alginate hydrogel tubes, which are suspended in the culture medium within a vessel. These hydrogel tubes shield cells from hydrodynamic stress and maintain the cell mass below 400 µm in diameter, facilitating efficient mass transport and creating a favorable microenvironment for cell growth. Under optimized conditions, AlgTubes supported long-term culture with high cell viability, rapid expansion (1000-fold increase over 9 days per passage), and high yield (5×10⁸ cells/mL), offering significant advantages over conventional methods. Despite these benefits, AlgTubes have critical drawbacks. They are mechanically fragile, with frequent breakage during culture leading to cell leakage and production failures. Additionally, many cell types exhibit poor growth due to the inability to adhere to the alginate surface, making alginate hydrogel microtubes unsuitable for industrial-scale cell production. To overcome these challenges, we developed a novel collagen hydrogel tube-based microbioreactor system in this work. This system provides enhanced robustness and adhesion, enabling scalable, cost-effective, and efficient cell production for a wide range of applications.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Collagen hydrogel tube microbioreactors for cell and tissue manufacturing

  Biofabrication · 2025-12-02

  articleOpen access

  Abstract The large-scale production of mammalian cells, particularly stem cells for clinical applications, remains challenging with existing cell culture technologies such as two-dimensional cell culture flasks or three-dimensional stirred tank bioreactors. Current methods have issues such as excessive cell aggregation and significant shear stress-induced cell death, resulting in low cell yield, unacceptable batch-to-batch variation, high production costs, and difficulties in scaling up. We hypothesize that creating a cell-friendly microenvironment that has efficient mass transport and minimized shear stress can enhance cell culture efficiency. In this study, we developed a novel hydrogel tube microbioreactor using collagen proteins (ColTubes) to test this hypothesis. First, we designed an innovative micro-extruder for fabricating ColTubes loaded with cells. Our results show that collagen proteins form a dense and robust nanofiber network capable of shielding cells from hydrodynamic stress while maintaining cell mass below 400 µ m in diameter. The tube shell contains abundant nanopores that allow the cell culture medium to permeate and nourish the cells. Additionally, the collagen fibers serve as a substrate for cell adhesion. We show that ColTubes support high cell viability, rapid expansion, and impressive volumetric yields, offering substantial improvements over current methods. To our knowledge, ColTubes is a novel approach that has not been previously reported for cell manufacturing. ColTubes represents a scalable, cost-effective, and efficient solution for large-scale cell production.

  PublisherDOI

• Substituent Modulation of Contorted Hexa‐ <i>peri</i> ‐benzocoronene‐Based Conjugated Metal–Organic Frameworks for High‐Performance Capacitor

  Angewandte Chemie · 2025-03-25 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access1st author

  Abstract Two‐dimensional conjugated metal–organic frameworks (2D c‐MOFs) exhibiting graphite‐like van der Waals stacked layers have been recognized as a new type of crystalline conductive materials and have shown rapid progress in the last decade. However, the purposive design and modulation of their conductive properties and related application performance remains a challenge. Herein, we present a new type of 2D c‐MOFs with contorted conformation and substituent‐modulated structures for highperformance of the capacitor. Octahydroxy‐hexa‐ peri ‐benzocoronene (HBCOH) with a contorted graphene nanosheet core is designed and synthesized as the ligand. The F‐substituted 2D c‐MOF FHBCOH‐Cu demonstrates superior crystallinity and conductive properties exhibiting a record‐breaking specific capacitance of 943 F g −1 at a rate of 0.5 A g −1 . The improved crystallinity, enhanced conductivity, and pore environment control enabled by halogen substitution, combined with the contorted conformation synergistically accomplish high performance of 2D c‐MOFs as electrode materials in supercapacitors. This study introduces a novel molecular design strategy for the construction of 2D c‐MOFs‐based high‐performance energy storage materials.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• An integrated multi-tissue atlas of epigenomic landscapes and regulatory elements in the bovine genome

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2025-08-25 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen access

  Abstract Deciphering the regulatory syntax of the genome is essential to understand the genetic and molecular architecture of complex traits, as most trait-associated variants lie in non-coding regions. Yet, functional annotation of the bovine genome remains limited, hindering our ability to unravel the mechanisms underpinning complex traits of economic and ecological importance in cattle. Here, we present a comprehensive epigenetic atlas comprising 1,138 genome-wide epigenetic profiles, including chromatin accessibility, six histone modifications, CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF) transcription factor binding, DNA methylation, chromatin conformation, and transcriptomes across 53 adult tissues, five fetal tissues, and seven primary cell types. This atlas-level data enables us to annotate around 45% of the genome as putative regulatory elements exhibiting tissue- or cell-specific regulatory activity. Leveraging sequence-to-function deep learning models, we discovered 301 sequence motifs and predicted the functional impact of genetic variants through in silico mutagenesis, thereby facilitating the decoding of the regulatory syntax of the cattle genome and fine-mapping of GWAS loci for 22 complex traits. Cross-species analysis further revealed evolutionarily conserved features of regulatory architecture and provided evolutionary insights into complex traits and diseases in humans. Together, this atlas offers a foundational resource for advancing cattle functional genomics, sustainable breeding, and studies of regulatory evolution.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• PSVRP: a pig structural variant reference panel for complex trait genomics and precision breeding

  BMC Genomics · 2025-11-25

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: Pigs are not only a key source of animal protein worldwide, but also serve as important models in biological research. With the rapid development of short- and long-read sequencing technologies, genetic studies in pigs have advanced considerably. Although extensive research has been conducted on single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and small insertions/deletions (indels), which has provided important insights into pig domestication, evolution, and trait formation, structural variants (SVs) remain underexplored due to technical limitations in sequencing resolution, challenges in variant detection, and insufficient population-scale sampling. RESULTS: In this study, we constructed the Pig Structural Variant Reference Panel (PSVRP) by integrating 21 long-read and 1,193 short-read whole-genome resequencing datasets from globally diverse pig populations. A total of 319,058 high-confidence SVs were identified, comprising 196,620 insertions and 122,438 deletions. Phylogenetic and ADMIXTURE analyses revealed clear divergence between Asian and European pigs, consistent with results derived from SNPs and indels data. Selection scans highlighted candidate genes associated with key traits, such as EPAS1 and NOVA1 for high-altitude adaptation, and PLAG1 and MIB1 for body size regulation. CONCLUSIONS: The PSVRP provides a high-resolution, population-scale pig SVs genotyping resource. This comprehensive panel deepens our understanding of genetic variation, facilitates the discovery of functional variants underlying adaptive and economic traits, and offers new insights for precision pig breeding.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Bipyridine-bridged <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" altimg="si1.svg"> <mml:mstyle mathvariant="normal"> <mml:mi>Φ</mml:mi> </mml:mstyle> </mml:math> -shaped cyclo[8]thiophene[2]pyrrole: Synthesis and fluorescence properties

  Chinese Chemical Letters · 2025-10-21

  article
  PublisherDOI

• A multi-tissue single-cell expression atlas in cattle

  Nature Genetics · 2025-09-05 · 11 citations

  articleOpen access

  Systematic characterization of the molecular states of cells in livestock tissues is essential for understanding the cellular and genetic mechanisms underlying economically and ecologically important physiological traits. Here, as part of the Farm Animal Genotype-Tissue Expression (FarmGTEx) project, we describe a comprehensive reference map including 1,793,854 cells from 59 bovine tissues in calves and adult cattle, spanning both sexes, which reveals intra-tissue and inter-tissue cellular heterogeneity in gene expression, transcription factor regulation and intercellular communication. Integrative analysis with genetic variants that underpin bovine monogenic and complex traits uncovers cell types of relevance, such as spermatocytes, responsible for sperm motility and excitatory neurons for milk fat yield. Comparative analysis reveals similarities in gene expression between cattle and humans, allowing for the detection of relevant cell types to study human complex phenotypes. This Cattle Cell Atlas will serve as a key resource for cattle genetics and genomics, selective breeding and comparative biology. This study introduces the Cattle Cell Atlas, a single-cell expression resource including 1,793,854 cells from 59 tissues. Integrative analyses leveraging this atlas provide insights into the biology underlying bovine monogenic and complex traits.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Ti‐Cheng Chang

  St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

  21 shared

• Hiroshi Yasue

  14 shared

• C.D. Dechow

  Pennsylvania State University

  13 shared

• Yaqi Zhao

  Tianjin Medical University

  13 shared

• Bhavesh V. Mistry

  King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre

  12 shared

• Jon M. Oatley

  Washington State University

  11 shared

• Yuanyuan Zhang

  China Agricultural University

  9 shared

• Mitsuru Chiba

  Akita University

  9 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Animal Science

  University of California, Davis

  2003

• M.S., Animal Science

  University of California, Davis

  1998

• B.S., Animal Science

  China Agricultural University

  1995