Brian Liau, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and Physics from Harvard College, before receiving a Ph.D. in Chemistry under the guidance of Dr. Matthew Shair. During his Ph.D. studies, Brian completed the chemical synthesis of complex bioactive natural products and investigated their biological mechanism of action. As a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Bradley Bernstein at Massachusetts General Hospital, he studied epigenetic mechanisms of adaptation and drug resistance in brain cancer.
In 2016, Brian started his independent research group, which integrates chemical biology with functional genomics to investigate the molecular mechanisms underpinning human disease, protein function, and drug action. His lab’s contributions have been recognized by numerous awards, including the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, the Ono Pharma Breakthrough Science Initiative Award, Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award, American Cancer Society Research Scholar Grant, a Camille-Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award, Sloan Research Fellowship in Chemistry, Mark Foundation ASPIRE award, and the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry.