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David Liu is Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University Dr. Liu's research applies evolutionary principles to the creation and evaluation of small molecules and macromolecules. His research interests include the development and application of new approaches to the evolution of biological macromolecules, and the application of evolutionary principles to the discovery of synthetic small molecules, synthetic polymers, and new chemical reactions. In the first area, Dr. Liu's group has developed and applied new methods for diversifying proteins and nucleic acids that enable DNA sequences to randomly recombine without any sequence homology. His efforts have led to the laboratory evolution of new macromolecular tools for studying biology, and have also dissected the structural and functional requirements of natural proteins and small RNA (sRNA) molecules. In the second area of interest, Dr. Liu's group has developed a new approach to the synthesis and discovery of synthetic molecules that captures fundamental advantages of biological evolution. This approach uses DNA oligonucleotides to direct the sequence-programmed synthesis of organic small molecules and polymers. As a result, the DNA template linked to each synthetic molecule can be selected for desired properties, amplified by PCR, and characterized by DNA sequencing or microarray analysis. By marrying synthetic organic chemistry with molecular biology, this research has enabled synthetic small molecules as well as synthetic polymers to undergo powerful processes of translation, selection, and amplification previously available only to biological macromolecules. Dr. Liu earned his Ph.D. in chemistry in 1999 and became Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University in the same year. | 