Pingfang Liu

In this expanded role, continue to oversee a team of developers focused on catalog products and spearhead NGS product development for the custom business.

Led, co-led, and managed many projects and a team of developers that have resulted in successful and impactful products. A few highlights include NEBNext Ultra® & Ultra II DNA Library Prep Kits, NEBNext MSTC PCR Master Mixes, NEBNext FFPE DNA Repair Mixes, NEBNext Immune Sequencing Kits, and the NEBNext Multiplex Oligos product line (Single, Dual, Unique Dual and UMIs). Spearheaded important collaborations and commercial relationships and provide ongoing support for key customers.

Developed assays to simultaneously enrich and detect genome-wide mutations in clinical samples using COLD-PCR (co-amplification at lower denaturation temperature-PCR)

Oxidative DNA damage response and repair in cell differentiation, aging and age-associated degeneration • Identified a new DNA repair pathway in mammalian mitochondria that protects cells against oxidative stress • Characterized the importance of DNA repair enzyme Ape1 in counteracting arsenic cytotoxicity and in suppressing arsenic-mediated mutagenesis • Established that terminally differentiated muscle cells are defective in DNA repair and hypersensitive to oxygen injury. This attenuated DNA damage response might contribute to myofiber degeneration as seen in sarcopenia and many muscle disorders

Oxidative and halogenated DNA lesions: repair mechanisms and impact on epigenetic signaling • Evaluated the impact of inflammation-induced halogenated lesions on methyltransferase and methyl-CpG-binding proteins. Demonstrated that 5-halogenated pyrimidine lesions within a CpG sequence context could alter epigenetic patterns as seen in cancers • Characterized the mechanisms of lesion selection by DNA repair enzymes using enzyme kinetics, synthetic DNA chemistry and computational methods