Chemical Biology

Chemical synthesis & small molecule mechanism of action

FunCtional Genomics

High-throughput methods to probe structure-function & mechanism

GEne regulation

Studying mechanisms of gene control

News

Check out Awards to Liau Lab Members, current and past!

2024

August
Big welcome to Silas, and undergrad at Harvard who is joining the team. And farewell to Chihiro and Sam, we appreciated our time working together and wish you the best as you return to the U.K.!

July
Congratulations to the lab for receiving the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry!

June
The LSD1 N-terminus team publish their paper in Molecular Cell ! Also, congratulations to James on receiving an NIH F31 predoctoral fellowship!
And welcome to our undergrads Airi, Luke, Chihiro, and Sam joining us this summer.

May
Congratulations to Dr. Ceejay Lee on her PhD defense! In other news, we posted our lab's pre-prints describing our work on the mechanism of action of UM171 and KBTBD4 cancer mutations. Lastly, the lab also received a NIH R35 grant from NIGMS!

April
Congratulations to Simon on receiving an NIH F31 predoctoral fellowship!

March
Welcome to Amanda who is joining us for her postdoc. And, welcome to Olivia (Liv), a graduate student from CB who is joining our team!

2023

December
Big welcome to Inês, who is joining as our lab administrator. With a heavy heart we say farewell to Lizzy, thank you for all the great work you did and we will miss you!

November
Congratulations to Yumi who sucessfully defended her Ph.D.!

October
Congratulations to Hui Si for winning an ASH Abstract Achievement Award!

July
Congratulations to Paloma, who successfully defended her Ph.D.

June
Congratulations to Nick, who successfully defended his Ph.D. and whose review was just published in Molecular Cell! Also, congratulations to James, who was selected for a Fujifilm graduate fellowship from the Therapeutics Graduate Program!

May
Congratulations to Shelby, who successfully defended her Ph.D.! The lab receives an R01 grant from the National Cancer Institute! Additionally, welcome to Carina Pfaeffle, who joins us as a visiting student! Congratulations as well to Yumi for winning the Knowles Award for the 2023 Bioorganic Chemistry Gordon Research Conference!

March
A huge congratulations to Stefan for receiving an ACS Postdoctoral Fellowship, and Julia for receiving an NSF GRFP fellowship! In other news, Zoë receives the Herchel Smith fellowship, Jess receives the Herchel Smith and PRISE fellowships, and Christine receives a PRISE fellowship—congratulations to our talented undergraduates! Congratulations to all of our amazing group members!

February
Congratulations to Brian for receiving a Sloan Award in Chemistry! In other news, our paper on DNMT1 activity-based CRISPR scanning has now been accepted at eLife! Congratulations to Kevin, Sam, and the rest of the DNMT1 team.

January
Congratulations to Hui Si, Ally, and the rest of the PRC2 team—our paper on PRC2 CRISPR-suppressor scanning has been accepted at Nature Chemical Biology! In other news, the lab welcomes Tobias Hansen, a visiting graduate student from the University of Copenhagen!

2022

December
Congratulations to Amanda, who delivered a wonderful thesis defense and is now officially a Ph.D.! Additionally, welcome to Calvin Hu, Marc Anthony Zepeda, and Idris Barakat, three talented graduate students from CCB who joined the team!

November
A huge congratulations to Allison, our latest Ph.D., on a stellar defense! In other news, our lab's protocol paper on CRISPR-suppressor scanning, written by Kevin and Nick, has been accepted at Current Protocols! Additionally, our lab superstar Olivia received the CCB Community Award in recognition of her work bringing the department together through social events and more. Congratulations to all!

October
Congratulations to Kevin, who successfully defended and became a newly minted Ph.D.!

September
Congratulations to Nick, Emma, and the rest of the DNMT3A team, whose paper was just accepted at Nature Chemical Biology! In other news, we say goodbye to Rebecca, who has been our fearless lab administrator for the past 3 years, and we wish her all the best in her new position. On the other hand, we're excited to welcome Lizzy Swenson to the lab as our new lab administrator!

August
Congratulations to Hui Si, who was awarded the Charles A. King Trust Postdoctoral Fellowship!

July
Congratulations to Allison, Shelby, and the rest of the LIMe-HiC team, whose paper was just accepted at Nature Communications!

June
Congratulations to Ally, who successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis and is now heading back to Harvard Medical School to finish her M.D., and to Pallavi, who will be starting as a senior scientist at Merck. Best of luck to them both! The lab also welcomes Stefan Harry, who recently obtained his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University and joins us as a joint postdoctoral fellow with the Bar-Peled lab!

May
Congratulations to Brian for receiving the 2022 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award! Also, our preprint on DNMT1 CRISPR-suppressor scanning is now available on bioRxiv! Lastly, congratulations to David, who graduated from Harvard College and will be starting his new job at Ascidian Therapeutics!

April
The lab welcomes James Woods, a graduate student from CB who will be joining us as a joint student with the Bar-Peled lab! Additionally, our preprints on Lamina-Inducible Methylation and Hi-C (LIMe-Hi-C), DNMT3A base editor scanning, and PRC2 CRISPR-suppressor scanning are all out on bioRxiv! Lastly, our three CCB G2s (Megan, Olivia, and Nicholas) all passed their qualifying exams—congratulations!

March
The lab says goodbye to Jiaming, who is moving to the Bay Area to work at Ideaya Biosciences, and Sam, who will be attending medical school later this year. Best wishes to both of them!

January
Welcome to Julia Morriss, a first-year graduate student from CCB who has joined the team! Additionally, a huge congratulations to Pallavi, Kevin, and the rest of the RBM39 team, whose paper was just accepted in ACS Central Science!

2021

December
The lab bids farewell to Esben as he returns to Denmark to finish up his Ph.D. It was wonderful having Esben as a visiting scholar! In other news, our preprint on molecular glue CRISPR-suppressor scanning is now up at bioRxiv!

November
Congratulations to Ally, whose review is now online at Nature Chemical Biology!

September
Welcome to Simon Shen, who joins us from the Chembio program as our newest graduate student, as well as Esben Svenningsen who joins us as a visiting researcher!

August
Congratulations to Yumi and Eileen, whose paper is now up in JACS!

July
The lab says goodbye to Cindy, who moves on to the next chapter of her scientific journey. Congratulations to Cindy on her Master's, and we wish her the best!

June
A big congratulations to Eileen for defending her Ph.D. work and becoming our lab’s very first graduate! We wish Eileen the best as she heads off to Sanofi!

May
The Liau Lab continues to grow as Nicholas Chen, a first-year CCB student, joins the team. Welcome!

April
Welcome to Olivia Zhang, a G1 graduate student from CCB, who joins our team! Additionally, congratulations to Heejin for passing her qualifying exam!

March
The lab welcomes Megan Yeo, a CCB G1, as our newest graduate student! In other news, congratulations to Emma for receiving two fellowships (the NSF GRFP and Landry Cancer Biology Research Fellowship), on top of passing her qualifying exam!

2020

September
Best wishes to Sarah, who has moved on to a research assistant position at Boston Children's Hospital!

June
The lab welcomes Tessa Haining as our newest undergraduate!

May
Congratulations to Brian for receiving the Star Family Prize for Excellence in Advising from Harvard College! In more bittersweet news, the lab says goodbye to a number of members. Aiden will be starting his Ph.D. at MIT in the fall, and we wish him the best of luck. Meanwhile, Eric, Ben, Sarah, and Ari have officially graduated from Harvard College! Eric moves on to study computer science at Carnegie Mellon, while Ben will also be starting his Ph.D. at MIT in the fall. Best of luck to everyone!

April
The lab welcomes Emma Garcia, a first-year graduate student from the Chemical Biology program, to the team!

January
Congratulations to Brian for receiving the 2020 Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award, and thank you to the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation for supporting our lab! Meanwhile, we welcome Jiaming Li, our newest postdoctoral fellow! Jiaming received his Ph.D. from Caltech working with the Grubbs and Stoltz labs.

2019

December
Welcome to Heejin Roh! Heejin is a first-year graduate student from CCB.

November
The lab welcomes Sam Hoenig, who joins us as a research assistant!

October
We're excited to announce that Brian recieved the NIH Director's New Innovator Award! Congratulations to Brian and thank you to the NIH for supporting our lab!

July
Congratulations to Brian for receiving the Ono Pharma Foundation Breakthrough Science Initiative Award! Thank you to the Ono Pharma Foundation for supporting our lab! In other news, the lab welcomes Rebecca Stillo as our new laboratory administrator, as well as Aiden Wang, who joins us as a visiting scholar.

June
The lab welcomes David Tanner, an undergraduate at Harvard College!

May
Shout out to our G2s (Ally, Nick, Shelby, Yumi, Ceejay) for all passing their qualifying exams!

April
Congratulations to Nick, who joins Kevin and Paloma as an NSF GRFP fellow!

March
Welcome to Hui Si Kwok, a postdoctoral fellow! Hui Si joins us from Dieter Söll's laboratory at Yale University. Goodbye and best wishes to Larry Valles, who has accepted a new position at Harvard Medical School as a Junior Operations Manager.

February
The lab's first two papers have been accepted for publication. Congratulations to the cycloheximide and LSD1 teams!

2018

December
The lab welcomes first-year graduate student Paloma Tuttle, who joins us from CCB!

June
We are excited to have three new graduate students, Ceejay Lee (Molecules, Cells, and Organisms), Nicholas Lue (Chemical Biology), and Shelby Roseman (Chemical Biology) officially join the lab! Ceejay recieved her undergraduate education from UCLA, Nick from UC Berkeley, and Shelby from the University of Delaware. Additionally, we welcome Sarah Araten, an undergraduate at Harvard College!

May
We congratulate Christopher Johnny on receiving his A.B. in Chemistry! Best wishes as he heads off to the University of Pennsylvania in pursuit of a Ph.D.

February
We welcome to the group Pallavi Gosavi as a postdoctoral fellow! She has recently completed her Ph.D. under the guidance of Professor Ivan Korendovych at Syracuse University.

2017

December
We are pleased to welcome Yumi Koga, a first-year graduate student from CCB onto our team!

November
Ally Freedy, an M.D.-Ph.D. student from the Chemical Biology program, has joined the lab. Welcome, Ally! Ben Senzer, a Sophomore in Harvard College, has also joined us as an undergraduate researcher.

June
We welcome Eric Zhou to the lab, who has joined us as an undergraduate researcher.

2016

December
The lab has taken on five first-year graduate students from the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology! Welcome to Eileen Hoang, Kevin Ngan, Allison Siegenfeld, Michael Vinyard, and Amanda Waterbury!

September
The lab is growing: Yongho Park (YP) joins us as a postdoctoral fellow from Eric Jacobsen's lab and Christopher Johnny joins us as an undergraduate researcher.

August
Our temporary lab space is up and running on the third floor of Converse Lab! We also recently welcomed Cindy Su to the group, who joined late last month as a research technician.