OSU Regents Professor To Lead New Respiratory And Infectious Diseases Center
04/01/2014
(Stillwater, Okla., April 1, 2014) - Lin Liu, Ph.D., has been named director of a new center of excellence at Oklahoma State University’s Center for Veterinary Health Sciences. Liu will lead the Oklahoma Center for Respiratory and Infectious Diseases (OCRID) made possible through a nearly $11.3 million Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (CoBRE) grant from the National Institutes of Health.
Since joining the veterinary center’s Department of Physiological Sciences in 2000, Liu has quickly become known for his expertise in respiratory research. His current research focuses on influenza virus infection, adult stem cell therapy, and lung diseases. He is a Regents professor, the Lundberg-Kienlen Endowed Chair in Biomedical Research, and the director of the center’s Lung Biology and Toxicology Laboratory. He has received more than $20 million in grants from the NIH, USDA and other funding agencies. Liu has also served on several grant review panels for the NIH and as well as other granting entities.
“The Center for Veterinary Health Sciences is proud and excited to house the Center for Oklahoma Respiratory Infectious Diseases,” says Dr. Jean Sander, dean of the veterinary center. “We have a core of outstanding faculty and staff focusing on this important area of disease that affects both animals and humans. Dr. Liu is the right person to lead this initiative and I anticipate this to be the beginning of even greater discoveries that support our tag line—Healthy Animals – Healthy People.”
Liu plans to leverage the CoBRE resources by collaborating with other experts at OSU’s veterinary center as well as with other OSU colleges, the University of Oklahoma, and the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation. Liu is known as an interdisciplinary program builder. In addition to the respiratory and infectious disease center, he has developed two other programs. One is the Interdisciplinary Program in Regenerative Medicine at OSU (IPRMO) through a grant from the OSU Provost’s Office. The other is the dual degree graduate program in Veterinary Biomedical Sciences and Entrepreneurship in collaboration with the Spears School of Business.
“Respiratory infection has a greater global burden of disease than any other condition, including well known and intensely studied diseases such as AIDS and cancers. It is also recognized as an important public heath priority of the U.S.,” says Liu. “OCRID’s mission is to achieve research and training excellence in respiratory and infectious diseases through deliberate faculty mentorship, robust interdisciplinary collaboration, innovative research, and a dynamic bench-to-bedside-to-marketplace approach,” adds Liu.
Originally from China, Liu earned a B.S. degree in Chemistry from the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, Anhui. He then earned a Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Liu came to the United States in 1990 to complete postdoctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center. He first studied in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics and then at the Institute for Environmental Medicine before coming to Oklahoma State University.
“The establishment of OCRID will have an immediate and sustained positive impact on research programs in respiratory infectious diseases in the State of Oklahoma. It will foster statewide inter-institutional research collaborations, build a critical mass of investigators in the thematic area, and improve research infrastructure,” says Liu.
Liu has been recognized for his work receiving the Regents Distinguished Research Award in 2006 and the Pfizer Award for Research Excellence twice—in 2004 and again in 2009. For more information about OCRID, visit www.ocrid.okstate.edu .