Liu Kai received his Bachelor degree from School of Life Sciences at Peking University in 1998, and received his Ph.D. from Rutgers University at New Brunswick in 2006. Then he did his postdoc research at Children’s Hospital Boston/Harvard Medical School. He joined Division of Life Science at HKUST as Assistant Professor in 2011, and is currently Cheng Associate Professor of Science. His research interest focuses on the intrinsic mechanisms regulating axonal regeneration and functional repair after central nervous system injuries.

Research Question

Cellular and molecular mechanisms of axonal regeneration failure in adult mammalian central nervous system.

Representative Publications

1. Wang X*, Yang C*, Wang XJ, Miao J, Chen W, Zhou Y, Xu Y, An Y, Cheng A, Ye W, Chen M, Song D, Yuan X, Wang J, Qian P, Wu AR, Zhang ZY, Liu K#. Driving Axon Regeneration by Orchestrating Neuronal and Non-neuronal Innate Immune Responses via the IFNγ-cGAS-STING Axis. Neuron, 2022 Nov 11; Online ahead of print.
2. Yang C*, Wang X*, Wang JY, Wang XJ, Chen W, Lu N, Siniossoglou S, Yao ZP, Liu K#. Rewiring neuronal glycerolipid metabolism determines the extent of axon regeneration. Neuron, 2020 Jan 22;105(2):276-292.
3. Li S*, Yang C*, Zhang L, Gao X, Wang X, Liu W, Wang Y, Jiang S, Wong YH, Zhang Y, Liu K#. Promoting axon regeneration in the adult CNS by modulation of the melanopsin/GPCR signaling. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2016 Feb 16;113(7):1937-
4. Du K*, Zheng S*, Zhang Q*, Li S, Gao X, Wang J, Jiang L, Liu K#. Pten deletion promotes regrowth of corticospinal tract axons one year after spinal cord injury. Journal of Neuroscience 2015 Jul 1;35(26): 9754-
5. Li S*, He Q*, Wang H, Tang X, Ho KW, Gao X, Zhang Q, Shen Y, Cheung A, Wong F, Wong YH, Ip NY, Jiang L, Yung WH, Liu K#. Injured adult retinal axons with Pten and Socs3 co-deletion reform active synapses with suprachiasmatic neurons. Neurobiology of Disease. 2014 Oct 16;73C:366-376. [Epub ahead of print].

Positions of Research Assistants at Bachelor or Master/MPhil levels are immediately available.

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