About

Lihong Liu is a Professor of Chinese Arts and Cultures and an Assistant Professor of History of Art at the University of Michigan. She holds a PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. Her research focuses on time, matter, space, and motion in art, with particular emphasis on art's environmental engagement. Her recent projects include developing an ecological approach to art history, conducting transcultural studies of material mediums, and exploring the art of simulation and automation. She is currently completing a book on the structure of time and place in Chinese paintings of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and she has undertaken projects examining the relationship between garden construction and landscape painting during the Yuan-Ming transition, as well as the global transmission of colorless glass following its invention in fifteenth-century Europe. Liu has published extensively in leading journals and is involved in editorial roles for prominent art history publications. She has received numerous fellowships and awards, including the Early Career Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies and the Henry Luce Foundation Fellowship, and has served as a visiting scholar at institutions such as Dumbarton Oaks and the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence.

Research topics

• Cell biology
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Medicine
• Biomedical engineering
• Bioinformatics
• Computational biology
• Biochemistry
• Dentistry

Selected publications

• Cannabidiol attenuates methamphetamine-induced psychosis via anti-oxidative stress: σ1R-mediated mitochondrial dysfunction as a critical pathway

  Phytomedicine · 2026-02-26

  article1st author
  PublisherDOI

• Nuclear Autoantigenic Sperm Protein Promotes Cardiac Regeneration and Repair Through Activating the <scp>PDGFRB</scp> / <scp>AKT</scp> Pathway

  The FASEB Journal · 2025-08-11

  articleOpen access

  Myocardial Infarction (MI) typically leads to unfavorable heart failure due to delayed reperfusion treatment. The adult heart is generally considered a nonregenerative organ. In contrast, the neonatal mammalian heart possesses the unique and transient ability to regenerate after injury. The underlying mechanisms governing heart regeneration remain largely unknown. Previous studies have shown that the nuclear auto-antigenic sperm protein (NASP) plays a crucial role in cell proliferation and tumorigenesis. This study explored the role of NASP in the heart for the first time, emphasizing its effect on cardiac regeneration and repair after injury. NASP exhibited high expression in neonatal myocardium and was observed to increase following apical resection (AR). The influence of NASP on cardiomyocyte proliferation was evaluated by examining cell cycle activity, mitosis, and cytokinesis staining using cardiomyocyte-specific overexpression or knockdown adenovirus 5 vectors. NASP knockdown inhibited heart regeneration in neonatal mice post-AR; whereas, NASP overexpression increased cardiomyocyte proliferation and promoted myocardial repair in adult mice post-MI. Mechanistically, NASP promoted cardiomyocyte proliferation through transcriptionally upregulating platelet-derived growth factor receptor beta (PDGFRB), subsequently activating the downstream AKT/c-MYC pathway. Our study highlights the key role of NASP in facilitating cardiac regenerative repair after injury, indicating its potential as a novel therapeutic target for MI.

  PublisherDOI

• Mineralocorticoid receptor phase separation modulates cardiac preservation

  Nature Cardiovascular Research · 2025-05-19 · 6 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• New avenues for asymmetric synthesis: N–H (+)-sparteine and analogues

  Green Synthesis and Catalysis · 2025-06-01 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  Sparteine, a naturally occurring chiral N-centered diamine, has been employed as a useful chiral ligand in numerous synthetic transformations, but due to a shortage of accessible intermediates, its modification, development and utility have stalled. Herein we report the synthesis and assessment of a Sparteine-related (+)- N –H diamine L4 on a 100-g scale, commencing from (−)-cytisine. The performance of the (+)- N –H diamine is benchmarked against sparteine (and N –Me sparteine) across a range of 60 hydroarylation reactions, demonstrating an average improvement of 20 ​% yield and 20 ​% ee . The diamine L4 is also demonstrated competent in a variety of other asymmetric metal- and organo-catalyzed processes. In particular, L4 enables asymmetric catalysis in a pure aqueous phase under ambient to reflux conditions and aerobic atmosphere, exhibiting excellent enantioselectivity and operational simplicity, which highlights its industrial applicability. A divergent synthesis strategy to enantiomeric analogues of the (+)- N –H diamine scaffold is reported. The improved performance of these systems is explored using quantum mechanical calculations, shedding light on the causes of enantioselectivity of ligand-controlled reactions. We anticipate that further investigation into this scaffold will pave the way for the development of other catalysts for important but challenging stereoselective processes. Semi-synthesis of a Sparteine-related N-H diamine L4 on hundred-gram scale from (−)-cytisine is reported. This diamine L4 outperforms Sparteine analogue in hydroarylation reactions with up to 99 ​% yield and 98 ​% ee . Its versatility is shown in diverse asymmetric metal- and organo-catalyzed reactions. Quantum calculations reveal enhanced enantioselectivity mechanisms. Further exploration of this diamine scaffold would advance asymmetric catalysis field.

  PublisherDOI

• AGP-Net: A Universal Network for Gene Expression Prediction of Spatial Transcriptomics

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2025-03-13

  preprintOpen access

  Abstract In the era of high-throughput biology, molecular phenotypes have proven effective in predicting disease states and future trajectories. Transcriptomics, in particular, has enabled the dissection of complex diseases with heterogeneous genetic and environmental aetiology, both aiding diagnosis and augmenting treatment. As improving technology has led to measurements of gene expression at increasing granularity, it has become progressively feasible to resolve disease traits that present locally or with spatial heterogeneity. Principal among these are cancers in which tumour gene expression, while itself heterogenous, exhibits a distinct signature from that of the surrounding tissue. Identifying this signature through molecular phenotyping facilitates specific cancer diagnosis and treatment. Here, we introduce AGP-Net, a multi-modal foundation framework capable of predicting gene expression from histopathology images. Rather than produce an aggregated estimate of expression for each gene, AGP-Net disaggregates images into spots and attempts to resolve the variation in gene expression across them, thereby providing coarse spatial transcriptomic predictions across the tumour slice and surrounding region. The challenge in doing so is due to data sparsity relative to the dimensionality of the problem: the number of genes and their contextual heterogeneity within and between tissue and cancer types makes it difficult to train a model on the limited data available. The innovation of AGP-Net lies in borrowing strength across similar genes as defined by their textual language descriptions. Our AGP-Net supports datasets with varying gene coverage and facilitates the prediction of gene expression for previously unseen genes based on their textual descriptions. Trained on millions of spots from diverse dataset sources, AGP-Net establishes state-of-the-art performance in zero-shot spatial gene expression prediction, demonstrating its adaptability to generalize across novel scenarios.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Lonicera japonica Fermented by Lactobacillus plantarum Improve Multiple Patterns Driven Osteoporosis

  Foods · 2024-08-23 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  Osteoporosis (OP) represents a global health challenge. Certain functional food has the potential to mitigate OP. Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) solution has medicinal effects, such as anti-inflammatory and immune enhancement, and can be used in functional foods such as health drinks and functional snacks. The composition of honeysuckle changed significantly after fermentation, and 376 metabolites were enriched. In this study, we used dexamethasone to induce OP in the rat model. Research has confirmed the ability of FS (fermented Lonicera japonica solution) to enhance bone mineral density (BMD), repair bone microarchitectural damage, and increase blood calcium levels. Markers such as tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase-5b (TRACP-5b) and pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α and IL-6) were notably decreased, whereas osteocalcin (OCN) levels increased after FS treatment. FS intervention in OP rats restored the abundance of 6 bacterial genera and the contents of 17 serum metabolites. The results of the Spearman correlation analysis showed that FS may alleviate OP by restoring the abundance of 6 bacterial genera and the contents of 17 serum metabolites, reducing osteoclast differentiation, promoting osteoblast differentiation, and reducing the inflammatory response. This study revealed that Lactobacillus plantarum-fermented honeysuckle alleviated OP through intestinal bacteria and serum metabolites and provided a theoretical basis for the development of related functional foods.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• 14-3-3 binding motif phosphorylation disrupts Hdac4-organized condensates to stimulate cardiac reprogramming

  Cell Reports · 2024-04-01 · 11 citations

  articleOpen access1st author

  Cell fate conversion is associated with extensive post-translational modifications (PTMs) and architectural changes of sub-organelles, yet how these events are interconnected remains unknown. We report here the identification of a phosphorylation code in 14-3-3 binding motifs (PC14-3-3) that greatly stimulates induced cardiomyocyte (iCM) formation from fibroblasts. PC14-3-3 is identified in pivotal functional proteins for iCM reprogramming, including transcription factors and chromatin modifiers. Akt1 kinase and protein phosphatase 2A are the key writer and key eraser of the PC14-3-3 code, respectively. PC14-3-3 activation induces iCM formation with the presence of only Tbx5. In contrast, PC14-3-3 inhibition by mutagenesis or inhibitor-mediated code removal abolishes reprogramming. We discover that key PC14-3-3-embedded factors, such as histone deacetylase 4 (Hdac4), Mef2c, and Foxo1, form Hdac4-organized inhibitory nuclear condensates. PC14-3-3 activation disrupts Hdac4 condensates to promote cardiac gene expression. Our study suggests that sub-organelle dynamics regulated by a PTM code could be a general mechanism for stimulating cell reprogramming.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Protocol for in vitro observation of HDAC4 condensation during induced cardiac reprogramming

  STAR Protocols · 2024-12-19

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  .

  PublisherDOI

• Transient BRD4 degradation improves cardiac reprogramming by inhibiting macrophage/Oncostatin M induced JAK/STAT pathway

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2024-01-01

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Reprogramming fibroblasts into induced cardiomyocytes (iCMs) holds great potential for cardiac regeneration. However, low conversion rate both in vitro and in vivo remains a significant challenge. To address this challenge, we focused on potential epigenetic barriers and screened 33 small-molecule inhibitors/degraders targeting histone acetyl post-translational modifications and related epigenetic factors. BET degraders were found to enhance cardiac reprogramming efficiency by degrading BRD4 and repressing genes involved in immune response, particularly those in the JAK/STAT pathway. We further identified that macrophage/oncostatin M activated the JAK/STAT pathway to repress cardiac reprogramming. BRD4 degrader treatment improved iCMs formation by inhibiting macrophage/oncostatin M-induced activation of the JAK/STAT pathway. Moreover, BRD4 degrader treatment enhanced MGT-mediated cardiac regeneration in vivo and improved myocardial performance post-myocardial infarction. These findings provide new insights into BRD4, macrophage/oncostatin M and JAK/STAT pathway in fibroblast to cardiomyocyte-like cell conversion and offer promising targets and small molecules to improve iCM reprogramming for clinical applications. Highlights Screen of histone acetylation modifiers identified BRD4, a histone acetylation reader, as an important regulator in cardiac reprogramming. BRD4 degradation promoted cardiac reprogramming by repressing inflammation and the JAK-STAT pathway. BRD4 degradation inhibited macrophage/oncostatin M-induced activation of the JAK/STAT pathway. BRD4 degradation enhanced MGT-mediated cardiac regeneration in vivo and improved myocardial performance post-myocardial infarction.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A ubiquitination-mediated degradation system to target 14-3-3-binding phosphoproteins

  Heliyon · 2023-05-01 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  The phosphorylation of 14-3-3 binding motif is involved in many cellular processes. A strategy that enables targeted degradation of 14-3-3-binding phosphoproteins (14-3-3-BPPs) for studying their functions is highly desirable for basic research. Here, we report a phosphorylation-induced, ubiquitin-proteasome-system-mediated targeted protein degradation (TPD) strategy that allows specific degradation of 14-3-3-BPPs. Specifically, by ligating a modified von Hippel-Lindau E3-ligase with an engineered 14-3-3 bait, we generated a protein chimera referred to as Targeted Degradation of 14-3-3-binding PhosphoProtein (TDPP). TDPP can serve as a universal degrader for 14-3-3-BPPs based on the specific recognition of the phosphorylation in 14-3-3 binding motifs. TDPP shows high efficiency and specificity to a difopein-EGFP reporter, general and specific 14-3-3-BPPs. TDPP can also be applied for the validation of 14-3-3-BPPs. These results strongly support TDPP as a powerful tool for 14-3-3 related research.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Shaomeng Wang

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  66 shared

• Donna McEachern

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  31 shared

• Chao‐Yie Yang

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  29 shared

• Jeanne A. Stuckey

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  28 shared

• Xian Zhao

  Kunming Medical University

  27 shared

• Ienglam Lei

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  24 shared

• Ming Lei

  Shanghai Jiao Tong University

  23 shared

• Longchuan Bai

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  23 shared

Education

• Master of Applied Data Science, School of Information

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

• PHD

  Nanjing University

  2012

• MS

  Yangzhou University

  2008

• BS

  Yangzhou University

  2005

Awards & honors

• Early Career Fellowship, American Council of Learned Society…
• Dumbarton Oaks (Harvard) Visiting Scholar (Stipendium)
• Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut…
• CASVA, National Gallery of Art Postdoctoral Fellowship
• Getty Research Institute Fellowship