About

Professor Lian Yu is a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Pharmacy, holding the position of Professor in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Chemistry. He earned his PhD in Physical Chemistry from Ohio State University and his BS in Chemistry from Peking University. Professor Yu's research focuses on the solid materials of organic molecules that are important for pharmaceutical formulations and electronic devices. These materials consist of complex molecules assembled by various intermolecular forces, exhibiting physical phenomena not observed in hard materials, thus offering new opportunities for materials engineering. His research encompasses two main areas: crystal polymorphism and amorphous solids and glasses. In crystal polymorphism, he investigates why some molecules have many polymorphs while others have none, the differing nucleation and growth rates of polymorphs from the same liquid, and the influence of liquid/vapor interfaces on crystallization and polymorph selection. In the study of amorphous solids and glasses, his work addresses the stability of glasses against crystallization, the role of surface mobility in glass crystallization and manufacturing, and the creation of glasses with tunable liquid-crystalline order. His group is also developing amorphous pharmaceuticals that remain stable in hot and humid environments, aiming to improve global health applications. Professor Yu has been recognized with several awards, including the David Grant Research Achievement Award in Physical Pharmacy from the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists in 2011, an invitation as Visiting Professor at the University of Manchester in 2009, election as a Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists in 2006, and the Lilly Research Laboratories President's Award in 2003.

Research topics

• Materials science
• Optoelectronics
• Chemistry
• Physics
• Crystallography
• Chemical physics
• Nanotechnology
• Optics
• Composite material
• Organic chemistry
• Chemical engineering

Selected publications

• Evaporative Coupled with Antisolvent Crystallization for Additive Manufacturing of Personalized Solid Dosage Forms

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2026-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Non-Destructive Pipeline for Analysis of Crystalline Solid Dispersions

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2026-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Probing component segregation and anisotropy for co-deposited glasses of TCTA and Ir(ppy)3 by GIWAXS

  The Journal of Chemical Physics · 2026-04-01

  article

  Vapor-deposited glasses of organic semiconductors are frequently used as active layers for organic luminescence devices, such as organic light-emitting diodes. Although it is well known that the aggregation of dopants is a significant factor determining device performance and lifetime, information about the dispersion of the dopants has usually been obtained indirectly using techniques such as photoluminescence spectra. In this work, we use grazing incidence wide-angle x-ray scattering (GIWAXS) to directly probe component segregation in co-deposited glasses of TCTA and Ir(ppy)3, a popular light emitter, across the wide range of compositions and substrate temperatures. As a complementary tool, differential scanning calorimetry and spectroscopic ellipsometry were utilized to further probe segregation and anisotropy of co-deposited glasses. We find that component segregation is observed in the vapor-deposited glasses, at all compositions we studied [10%, 30%, and 50% of Ir(ppy)3 concentration], as identified by an anisotropic scattering peak, resulting from clusters of periodically arranged Ir(ppy)3 molecules. As a result, this paper provides a novel route to probe component segregation in co-deposited glasses by GIWAXS.

  PublisherDOI

• Optimizing Drug Nanoparticle Release from Amorphous Solid Dispersions: Exceptional Performance of Poly(acrylic acid) for Releasing Lumefantrine

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Comparative proteogenomics reveals ecological and evolutionary insights into the organohalide-respiring <i>Dehalobacter restrictus</i> strain T

  Applied and Environmental Microbiology · 2025-03-14 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access

  ABSTRACT 1,1,1-Trichloroethane (1,1,1-TCA) and chloroform (CF) are persistent groundwater contaminants because of their widespread industrial use as organic solvents and improper disposal in the past. Obligate organohalide-respiring bacteria (OHRB), such as Dehalobacter ( Dhb ), play crucial roles in biotransforming and detoxifying natural or anthropogenic halogenated organics including 1,1,1-TCA and CF through reductive dechlorination. Despite their significance, only five Dhb strains have been associated with the reductive dechlorination of 1,1,1-TCA or CF. Therefore, cultivating and characterizing novel Dhb strains from various environments of different origins worldwide is crucial for understanding the ecology and evolution of Dhb and the associated reductive dehalogenase (RDase) genes. This study reports the enrichment and investigation of a novel Dhb population capable of reducing 1,1,1-TCA to 1,1-dichloroethane, CF to dichloromethane, 1,1,2-TCA to vinyl chloride/1,2-dichloroethane, and 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene to 1,2-dichlorobenzene. The capability for dechlorinating both aliphatic and aromatic compounds was observed for the first time in the sediment sourced from the Xi River situated in the North China Plain. Comparative genomic analysis of Dhb strains revealed genome contraction might have resulted in the loss of various gene family members, contributing to the syntrophy interactions (e.g., cobalamin, hydrogen, and acetate) of Dhb with other anaerobes (e.g., fermenters and acetogens). Proteogenomic and phylogenetic analysis confirmed the highly expressed 1,1,1-TCA/CF-dechlorinating RDase, designated as TcaA, shared 94.7–96.7% amino acid sequence similarities with RDases, such as ThmA, CfrA, and TmrA. This study expands knowledge on Dhb biogeography and evolution while providing insights into potential syntrophy interactions supporting organohalide respiration by Dhb . The findings have implications for developing the novel biotechnologies for the remediation of halogenated alkane-contaminated sites. IMPORTANCE Organohalide-respiring bacteria (OHRB) are essential for breaking down harmful pollutants in the environment. This study investigates a newly discovered OHRB capable of degrading multiple contaminants, including persistent 1,1,1-trichloroethane and chloroform. By understanding its unique abilities and interactions with other microbes, we gain valuable insights into how these bacteria evolve and function, enabling the development of improved bioremediation strategies to clean up polluted sites.

  PublisherDOI

• Prototype of Ultra-Low-Power Readout Electronics for the Large Area ${ }^{3}He$ Tube Array Detector at China Spallation Neutron Source

  2025-11-01

  article

  The China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) is currently upgrading to CSNS-II, increasing the proton beam power to 500 kW and constructing several new neutron spectrometers. The CSNS-II upgrade poses significant challenges for detector and electronics systems, including higher counting rate, improved position resolution requirement, and vacuum operating environment. In this paper, we present an ultra-low-power front-end readout electronics prototype designed for <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">${ }^{3}\text{He}$</tex> tube detectors in CSNS-II spectrometers. The circuit design, FPGA algorithms, and laboratory test results of the prototype will be discussed. Experimental results demonstrate that the new electronics system can achieve a single-tube counting rate of 100 K/s while maintaining a position resolution better than 8 mm. Test also confirmed the system's capability to operate under vacuum conditions. These results meet the requirements for neutron signal readout in CSNS-II spectrometers.

  PublisherDOI

• Slurry Conversion: A General Method for Formulating Amorphous Solid Dispersions and Fully Integrating Drug and Polymer Components

  Molecular Pharmaceutics · 2025-06-13

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  A solvent-sparing method, called "slurry conversion", has been tested as a general approach to preparing amorphous solid dispersions (ASDs). In this method, a solid mixture of a drug and a polymer is stirred in the presence of a small quantity of a solvent, which is subsequently removed. In previous work, the method enabled more complete salt formation between lumefantrine (LMF), a basic antimalarial, with acidic polymers, than the common methods of hot melt extrusion and spray drying, leading to improved physical stability and release. Here, we apply this method to 18 poorly soluble drugs formulated as binary and ternary ASDs. For a rigorous test, the drugs were formulated with a single polymer, poly(acrylic acid) (PAA), under the same condition: room temperature stirring in 1:1 ethanol-dichloromethane at 4:1 solvent/solid ratio. ASDs were prepared for 16 of the 18 drugs at 25% drug loading and 11 at 50% drug loading. The drugs that were not fully amorphized did not dissolve in the default solvent or crystallized during drying. For most drugs, an abrupt "clearing" of the slurry occurred during stirring, indicating complete dissolution and amorphization before drying. While clearing did not occur for some drugs (e.g., clofazimine), the product was still fully amorphous, through solvent-mediated conversion. For a basic drug, the degree of protonation by PAA increases smoothly with PAA concentration and is ordered by its basic strength, supporting the conclusion that the method allows the system to reach thermodynamic equilibrium. In addition to binary ASDs, ternary ASDs containing two drugs (LMF and artemether or LMF and artesunate) were successfully prepared to support applications in combination therapies. In these ternary formulations, the protonation of LMF follows the trend established for binary systems. We find that slurry conversion can be scaled up 60-fold from the typical batch size without any difficulties or adverse effect on the structure and properties of the product. Overall, our results demonstrate that slurry conversion is a general, low-cost, and green alternative to conventional methods for manufacturing ASDs where the components are fully integrated.

  PublisherDOI

• Controlled API crystallization during additive manufacturing of solid dosage form for flexible integrated pharmaceutical manufacturing

  International Journal of Pharmaceutics · 2025-09-25

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Structural Evolution in a Glass-Forming Liquid Alcohol by X-Ray Scattering: Contrasting Behaviors of Main Peak and Prepeak Structures

  The Journal of Physical Chemistry B · 2025-02-26 · 1 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  X-ray scattering of liquid 2-ethyl-1-hexanol (2E1H) has been measured from its liquid state to its glassy state with focus on the main scattering peak and the prepeak. The main peak, associated with the packing of the alkyl chains, shifts to higher angle and sharpens in a manner consistent with closely packed spheres, until kinetic arrest at the glass transition temperature Tg (146 K). In contrast, the prepeak, associated with the correlation of the hydroxyl groups separated by the hydrocarbon chains, shows a transition near 220 K, below which its width is nearly frozen and insensitive to the passage of Tg. This transition coincides with a similar transition in the Kirkwood factor gK which reports the orientational correlation of the OH dipoles, and with the transition reported previously as the “250 K anomaly” based on other observables. This transition arises from the increased hydrogen bonding between the hydroxyl groups and the resulting improvement of the regularity of the alcohol bilayers.

  PublisherDOI

• Effect of Surfactants on Posaconazole Crystallization and Polymorphism: Tween 80 vs Span 80

  Crystal Growth & Design · 2025-08-12 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  A surfactant is often present in a pharmaceutical formulation and can accelerate the crystallization of the active component. We investigate the effects of two common surfactants with different hydrophilic–lipophilic balance, Span 80 and Tween 80, on the crystallization of posaconazole (POS) in its two polymorphic forms (I and II). At 0–10 wt %, the two surfactants similarly increase the growth rates of both polymorphs, but have different effects on their nucleation rates, without exhibiting the proportional-modification behavior observed for many other amorphous systems. The classical nucleation theory (CNT) can quantitatively describe the nucleation kinetics in the pure POS melt and in the surfactant-doped melts, where the surfactants are treated as ideal diluents of POS. The two surfactants’ effects on the nucleation rate form a single trend in the CNT analysis, yielding the nucleus/liquid interfacial tension σ = 0.019 J/m2 for Form I and 0.012 J/m2 for Form II. The σ value of 0.019 J/m2 for Form I nucleating from a doped melt exceeds that for nucleating from a pure melt (0.012 J/m2), possibly reflecting a greater structural difference between a chemically pure crystal and an impure melt. This work has provided a strong test of the CNT by applying it to both pure and doped melts where the crystallization driving force is varied through temperature in the pure system and through concentration in the doped system, and yielded a simple picture for two chemically distinct surfactants on the crystallization in a polymorphic system.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• DMREF: Engineering Organic Glasses

  NSF · $1.1M · 2012–2016

• GOALI: Crystallization of Organic Glasses

  NSF · $783k · 2009–2012

• Surface Crystallization and Diffusion of Organic Glasses

  NSF · $535k · 2012–2016

• Polymorphism of Organic Materials

  NSF · $260k · 2008–2012

• Glasses with Tunable Liquid Crystalline Order

  NSF · $370k · 2019–2023

Frequent coauthors

• M. D. Ediger

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  67 shared

• Terry A. Miller

  37 shared

• James M. Williamson

  34 shared

• Junguang Yu

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  33 shared

• Markus Reiher

  ETH Zurich

  30 shared

• Yue Gui

  Roche (China)

  29 shared

• Chengbin Huang

  BeiGene (China)

  27 shared

• Xin Yao

  AbbVie (United States)

  25 shared

Labs

• Yu LabPI

Education

• Ph.D.

  Ohio State University

• B.S.

  Peking University

Awards & honors

• David Grant Research Achievement Award in Physical Pharmacy,…
• Invited Visiting Professor, University of Manchester, UK, 20…
• Elected Fellow, American Association of Pharmaceutical Scien…
• Lilly Research Laboratories President's Award, 2003