Liu, Xiaorong
Primary Appointment
Associate Professor of Biology and Psychology, Biology
Education
- PhD, Biology, University of Virginia
Contact Information
Email: xl8n@virginia.edu
Website: http://bio.as.virginia.edu/people/xl8n
Research Disciplines
Development, Stem Cells & Regeneration, Experimental Pathology, Neuroimmunology, Neuroscience
Research Interests
Developing novel neuroprotection strategies to preserve vision in glaucoma
Research Description
I have been interested in understanding the regulation and misregulation of retinal structures and functions during normal development and in diseased conditions since my PhD study. I started my own laboratory in 2008 as a research assistant professor in Neurobiology and Physiology at Northwestern University, mainly working on visual system development and function. I started my tenure-track position in Ophthalmology in 2011, around which time I expanded my research interests to investigating how visual system degenerates in mouse models of experimental glaucoma. Glaucoma is a major cause of blindness characterized by progressive retinal ganglion cell (RGC) death and vision loss. Much remains to be investigated how RGCs degenerate and die with glaucoma progression. Our research on RGC normal development and function provides unique and innovative tools to characterize RGC degeneration in glaucoma, which is much needed to advance the field. In my laboratory, we have established mouse models of experimental glaucoma to study RGC death and its underlying molecular mechanisms. We combine mouse genetics, in vivo imaging, molecular biology, and physiology techniques to study the structural and functional development of RGCs as well as how RGCs degenerate in glaucoma. Moreover, we are also interested in developing novel neuroprotection strategies to preserve vision in glaucoma. For more information, please visit my website.