Washington University in St Louis · BiologyLiu Gut Health Lab
Ta-Chiang Liu · Saint Louis, Missouri
Research Focus
Dr. Ta-Chiang Liu's lab focuses on understanding how HIV impacts gut health and the role of diet in gut immunity. They use advanced mouse models and cell culture techniques to study gut inflammation and the functions of special cells called Paneth cells, which are crucial for intestinal health. Their goal is to uncover mechanisms that contribute to gut dysfunction in people with HIV and those with obesity-related issues, ultimately aiding in the development of new treatments.
HIVgut inflammationPaneth cellsdietary effectsinnate immunity
Research Aims
5AIM 01Define the molecular mechanisms of gut inflammation during HIV infection.
AIM 02Investigate the effects of dietary fructose on Paneth cell function.
AIM 03Examine how HIV-infected immune cells disrupt gut barrier integrity.
AIM 04Study the interaction between intestinal epithelial cells and immune cells in HIV enteropathy.
AIM 05Determine if long-term dietary consumption impacts gut health and immune function.
Skills the Lab Values
cell culturehumanized mouse modelsscRNA-seqscATAC-seqimmunohistochemistry
Output against the department
Publications199top 33% of dept.337th of 1,033
this lab
most publishedleast published
Citations8.7ktop 43% of dept.449th of 1,033
this lab
most citedleast cited
Career totals from OpenAlex, compared against labs that share a department. A department spans everything from one paper to tens of thousands, so bar heights are on a log scale — otherwise the largest lab would flatten every other bar to a line.