Wen-Tso Liu
· Arthur C. Nauman Endowed Professor in Civil and Environmental EngineeringUniversity of Illinois Urbana-Champaign · Civil and Environmental Engineering
Active 1948–2024
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About
Dr. Wen-Tso Liu holds the Arthur Nauman Endowed Professorship in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he has been a faculty member since 2008. His research primarily focuses on the microbiome, exploring the ecological roles of microbes in various water systems—including watersheds, drinking water systems, wastewater treatment, and reclamation systems—as well as in animal gut systems. His work aims to understand microbial diversity, metabolic functions such as carbon and nitrogen cycling, and how microbial communities can be influenced or controlled within water systems to improve water cycling and protect public health. Dr. Liu's scientific contributions include leveraging advanced analytical methods such as next-generation DNA sequencing technologies, metagenomics, and single-cell genomics to decipher microbial functions and diversity, particularly in anaerobic digesters and drinking water microbiomes. He is the lead principal investigator for the DOE-funded Digester Microbiome Project, which investigates microbial diversity and function in anaerobic digesters to maximize biogas production. Additionally, he has collaborated on developing integrated wastewater treatment systems for the soft drink industry, successfully implementing pilot-scale systems. His research addresses critical challenges in understanding microbial roles in water quality and health, contributing significantly to environmental microbiology and…
Research topics
- Genetics
- Biology
- Computational biology
- Evolutionary biology
- Biochemistry
- Ecology
- Microbiology
Selected publications
Expansion of the global RNA virome reveals diverse clades of bacteriophages
Cell · 2022 · 294 citations
Frontiers in Microbiology · 2020 · 106 citations
Senior authorCorrespondingvadinHA17.
Microbiome · 2020 · 105 citations
Senior authorCorrespondingBACKGROUND: produced from co-occurring metabolisms. Strategies for driving thermodynamically competing metabolisms in methanogenic environments remain unexplored. RESULTS: oxidation driven by methyl-reducing methanogenesis and tripartite uptake of formate, electrons, and acetate. CONCLUSION: -affinity methanogenesis. These findings shed light on how microorganisms overcome a critical obstacle in methanogenic carbon cycles we had hitherto disregarded and provide foundational insight into anaerobi…
Ecology and molecular targets of hypermutation in the global microbiome
Nature Communications · 2021-05-24 · 84 citations
articleOpen accessChanges in the sequence of an organism's genome, i.e., mutations, are the raw material of evolution. The frequency and location of mutations can be constrained by specific molecular mechanisms, such as diversity-generating retroelements (DGRs). DGRs have been characterized from cultivated bacteria and bacteriophages, and perform error-prone reverse transcription leading to mutations being introduced in specific target genes. DGR loci were also identified in several metagenomes, but the ecologica…
Microbiome · 2020-02-11 · 74 citations
articleOpen accessBACKGROUND: Microorganisms in activated sludge (AS) play key roles in the wastewater treatment processes. However, their ecological behaviors and differences from microorganisms in other environments have mainly been studied using the 16S rRNA gene that may not truly represent in situ functions. RESULTS: Here, we present 2045 archaeal and bacterial metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) recovered from 1.35 Tb of metagenomic data generated from 114 AS samples of 23 full-scale wastewater treatment pl…
Frequent coauthors
- 38 shared
Takashi Narihiro
Hokkaido University
- 34 shared
Masaru K. Nobu
Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology
- 27 shared
Hideyuki Tamaki
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
- 25 shared
Ran Mei
Soochow University
- 23 shared
Yoichi Kamagata
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
- 23 shared
Jer‐Horng Wu
National Cheng Kung University
- 19 shared
Pei‐Ying Hong
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
- 18 shared
Nikos C. Kyrpides
Joint Genome Institute
Labs
Wen-Tso Liu LabPI
Education
- 1990
Ph.D., Environmental Engineering
University of California, Berkeley
- 1985
M.S., Environmental Engineering
University of California, Berkeley
- 1982
B.S., Environmental Engineering
National Taiwan University
Awards & honors
- 2020 Walter J.. Weber, Jr. AEESP Frontier in Research Award
- 2018 ISME-IWA Bio-Cluster Grand Prize
- Arthur Nauman Endowed Professor and CEE Excellence Faculty S…
- Distinguished alumni award of National Taipei University of…
- Honorary international professorship of National Taipei Univ…
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