Dr Gang Liu is the Lead of Tissue Repair and Cancer Group in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Faculty of Science. Dr Liu completed his PhD in 2016 at the University of Newcastle (UoN) in Australia, where he focused on airway remodeling and fibrosis in lung diseases. He then held a postdoctoral fellowship at UoN (2016-17), where he investigated the link between inflammation and fibrosis in lung diseases. In his second postdoctoral position (2017-2019), he joined the Hunter Medical Research Institute to expand his research to gut-lung crosstalk.
In 2019, Dr Liu was appointed as the leader of Fibrosis Node in the Centre for Inflammation at Centenary Institute and University of Technology Sydney (UTS). In 2022, he was awarded the Hope Fellowship (Scientific) from Centre for Research Excellence in Pulmonary Fibrosis and the Lung Foundation Australia to study the impact of fibrosis in lung diseases. In 2024, Dr Liu established his independent research group at UTS. His current research focuses on understanding the development of fibrosis in the lung and its links to other diseases, such as cancer.
Research
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive disease marked by irreversible scarring (fibrosis) in the lungs. Without a known cause, IPF has a poor prognosis, with most patients surviving only 2–5 years after diagnosis. In Australia, IPF leads to approximately 1,000 deaths annually. Currently, only two drugs are approved for IPF treatment. However, these medications have limited effect on improving symptoms and cannot reverse already developed fibrosis. This highlights the urgent need for new and more effective therapies.
Dr Liu’s personal experience with IPF, having lost a close relative to the disease during his PhD, drives his dedication to discovering better treatments for IPF. His research will use advanced artificial intelligence and cutting-edge molecular research techniques to understand the mechanisms that trigger lung fibrosis and to identify innovative therapeutic targets that could suppress existing fibrosis in IPF. Dr Liu has shown promising insights into the roles of extracellular matrix proteins (a group of key structural proteins in lungs) and mast cell proteases (a group of enzymes) in stablising lung tissue structure in fibrotic diseases, which suggests their potential role in regulating lung fibrosis.
Supported by the Al & Val Rosenstrauss Fellowship, Dr. Liu is working to uncover factors that cause lung fibrosis, enhance diagnostic methods for IPF, and identify new therapeutic targets. This research has the potential to pave the way for urgently needed therapies for IPF, which would ultimately reduce healthcare costs and improve outcomes for IPF patients.
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