About

Xiaorong Liu is a Professor of Biology and Psychology at the University of Virginia. She holds a B.S. from Peking University (1996), a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia (2002), and completed postdoctoral training at The Scripps Research Institute (2002) and the University of California San Francisco (2003-2007). Her research focuses on understanding the regulation and misregulation of retinal structures and functions during normal development and in diseased conditions. Since starting her own laboratory in 2008 as a research assistant professor in Neurobiology and Physiology at Northwestern University, she has worked on visual system development and function, particularly investigating how the visual system degenerates in mouse models of experimental glaucoma. Her work aims to elucidate the mechanisms of retinal ganglion cell (RGC) degeneration and develop neuroprotection strategies to preserve vision. Her laboratory has established mouse models of glaucoma to study RGC death, employing techniques such as mouse genetics, in vivo imaging, molecular biology, and physiology to analyze the structural and functional development of RGCs and their degeneration in glaucoma.

Research topics

• Materials science
• Composite material
• Biology
• Biochemistry
• Ophthalmology
• Chemical engineering
• Forensic engineering
• Engineering
• Anatomy
• Medicine
• Chemistry
• Pulp and paper industry
• Botany
• Cell biology

Selected publications

• Bamboo flattening technology ebables efficient and value-added utilization of bamboo in the manufacture of furniture and engineered composites

  Composites Part B Engineering · 2022 · 95 citations

  • Materials science
  • Composite material
  • Chemical engineering
  DOI

• Bamboo flattening technique: a literature and patent review

  European Journal of Wood and Wood Products · 2021 · 140 citations

  • Pulp and paper industry
  • Materials science
  • Forensic engineering
  DOI

• Overexpression of <i>GmMYB14</i> improves high‐density yield and drought tolerance of soybean through regulating plant architecture mediated by the brassinosteroid pathway

  Plant Biotechnology Journal · 2020 · 185 citations

  • Biology
  • Botany
  • Cell biology

  MYB transcription factors (TFs) have been reported to regulate the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, as well as to mediate plant adaption to abiotic stresses, including drought. However, the roles of MYB TFs in regulating plant architecture and yield potential remain poorly understood. Here, we studied the roles of the dehydration-inducible GmMYB14 gene in regulating plant architecture, high-density yield and drought tolerance through the brassinosteroid (BR) pathway in soybean. GmMYB14 was shown to localize to nucleus and has a transactivation activity. Stable GmMYB14-overexpressing (GmMYB14-OX) transgenic soybean plants displayed a semi-dwarfism and compact plant architecture associated with decreased cell size, resulting in a decrease in plant height, internode length, leaf area, leaf petiole length and leaf petiole angle, and improved yield in high density under field conditions. Results of the transcriptome sequencing suggested the involvement of BRs in regulating GmMYB14-OX plant architecture. Indeed, GmMYB14-OX plants showed reduced endogenous BR contents, while exogenous application of brassinolide could partly rescue the phenotype of GmMYB14-OX plants. Furthermore, GmMYB14 was shown to directly bind to the promoter of GmBEN1 and up-regulate its expression, leading to reduced BR content in GmMYB14-OX plants. GmMYB14-OX plants also displayed improved drought tolerance under field conditions. GmBEN1 expression was also up-regulated in the leaves of GmMYB14-OX plants under polyethylene glycol treatment, indicating that the GmBEN1-mediated reduction in BR level under stress also contributed to drought/osmotic stress tolerance of the transgenic plants. Our findings provided a strategy for stably increasing high-density yield and drought tolerance in soybean using a single TF-encoding gene.

  DOI

• In Vivo Imaging of Schlemm's Canal and Limbal Vascular Network in Mouse Using Visible-Light OCT

  Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science · 2020 · 43 citations

  • Ophthalmology
  • Anatomy
  • Medicine

  Purpose: To validate the ability of visible-light optical coherence tomography (vis-OCT) in imaging the full Schlemm's canal (SC) and its surrounding limbal vascular network in mice in vivo through a compound circumlimbal scan. Methods: We developed an anterior segment vis-OCT system and a compound circumlimbal scanning method, which montages eight rotated raster scans. We calibrated the circumlimbal scan geometry using a three-dimensional printed phantom eyeball before imaging wild-type C57BL/6J mice. We measured SC size by segmenting SC cross sections from vis-OCT B-scan images and imaged the limbal microvascular network using vis-OCT angiography (vis-OCTA). To introduce changes in SC size, we used a manometer to adjust the intraocular pressure (IOP) to different levels. To create additional optical scattering contrast to enhance SC imaging, we surgically increased the episcleral venous pressure (EVP) and caused blood reflux into SC. Results: Using the compound circumlimbal scan, our anterior segment vis-OCT noninvasively imaged the full SC and limbal microvascular network in mouse for the first time. We observed an average 123% increase in SC volume when we decreased the IOP by 10 mm Hg from the baseline IOP of 7 to 10 mm Hg and an average 72% decrease in SC volume when the IOP level was elevated by 10 mm Hg from the baseline IOP. We also observed location-dependent SC size responses to IOP changes. Blood reflux caused by increased EVP enabled vis-OCTA to directly visualize SC, which matched well with the segmented SC. Conclusions: Vis-OCT and vis-OCTA can accurately image the entire SC and limbal microvascular network in vivo using the compound circumlimbal scan. Vis-OCT is also able to quantitatively measure SC responses to changing IOP levels.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Investigating nanoscale neuronal damages in early glaucoma towards clinical optical detection

  NIH · $2.0M · 2018–2024

• Cell Type Specific Visual Processing in the Superior Colliculus

  NIH · $3.9M · 2015–2029

• NIH Grant R01EY019034

  NIH · $1.4M · 2013

• Modulating aqueous humor outflow with engineered nanoparticles for glaucoma

  NIH · $2.0M · 2023–2028

Frequent coauthors

• Mingna Liu

  University of Virginia

  26 shared

• Liang Feng

  Northwestern University

  26 shared

• Jianhua Cang

  University of Virginia

  25 shared

• Hao F. Zhang

  24 shared

• Marta Grannonico

  University of Virginia

  24 shared

• David A. Miller

  20 shared

• Aihua Dai

  University of Missouri

  16 shared

• Peter A. Netland

  University of Virginia

  14 shared

Education

• PhD, Biology

  University of Virginia

  2001

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