Chunyan Liu
Research Associate II
Chunyan Liu is a research associate at the Board of Governors Gene Therapeutics Research Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Chunyan previously worked at Henan Institute of Medical Science and Henan Medical University (The First Teaching Hospital) as a research assistant and medical resident. Dr Liu currently collaborates with several lab members and is working on the development of novel gene therapy strategies for neurodegenerative diseases and brain cancer. She is using adenovirus vectors harboring different target genes in order to deliver them to normal brain cells and also brain cancer cells.
Gene therapy is the use of nucleic acids as drugs with the resulting therapeutic benefit to the patient. For gene therapy to be successful, the desired gene must be delivered into target cells efficiently, it should be expressed in a regulated manner at high levels and/or for a long duration. It is essential to develop gene delivery vectors that can meet clinical and therapeutic requirements for successful gene therapy. None of the gene delivery systems currently used for in-vivo gene transfer is ideal with respect to any of the previously mentioned characteristics. The brain offers a particular challenge for gene delivery to its constituent cells (i.e., it is encased by the skull). It is surrounded by the blood brain barrier, and it is made up of mostly non-dividing cells. The skull limits direct injection of vectors into the brain, the blood brain barrier inhibits the easy entry of vectors injected into the bloodstream, and post mitotic target cells restrict what type of vector can be used to deliver genes to the brain. Our laboratory is focusing on the development and use of "gutless" helper dependent recombinant adenovirus vectors (HC-Ad) for gene transfer into the CNS. Chunyan will be generating and purifying different HC-Ad harboring a variety of therapeutic genes, including cytotoxic genes, genes that stimulate immune responses, genes that promote neuronal cell protection from further damage and genes that promote the differentiation of resident neuronal cell precursors into mature dopaminergic neurons. Dr. Liu will investigate their biological activities related to gene therapy for neurological disorders and brain tumors.
