Zhi-Ren Liu, Ph.D., is an acclaimed microbiologist whose work is focused on understanding the role of the tumor microenvironment on cancer progression and immunity.

Dr. Liu has been a Distinguished University Professor (since 2014) and Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Cancer Scholar (since 2003) in Department of Biology, Georgia State University. He joins the UAB Division of Hematology and Oncology as Professor of Medicine.

Dr. Liu’s research group is interested in the translation of bench-top research to bed-side disease treatment drugs, particularly in cancers, chronic liver diseases, and cardiovascular disease.

His lab is focused on the development of a rationally designed protein drug (ProAgio) as a treatment for pancreatic, breast, lung, and colon cancer. Their efforts will be extensively involved in collaborations in both basic and clinical studies of ProAgio in cancer treatment and in understanding the mechanism of drug action in patient tumors. Due to the unique mechanism of drug action of ProAgio, Dr. Liu is also interested in extending the cancer treatment application of the drug to be used in combination with radiotherapies at UAB.

The novel drug mechanism of ProAgio also provides excellent opportunity as a drug in treatment of chronic liver diseases, such as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, autoimmune hepatitis, and primary biliary cholangitis. Dr. Liu is looking forward to strong collaboration efforts with UAB Gastroenterologists and Hepatologists in both pre-clinical and clinical studies of ProAgio.