Liu Honored with Young Innovator Award

July 11, 2019 - Chang Liu has received the 2019 Young Innovator Award from the American Chemistry Society’s Synthetic Biology journal. The recognition honors the contributions of a young scientist who has made a major impact on synthetic biology and/or related fields.

Liu, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering, conducts research in the fields of synthetic biology, chemical biology and directed evolution. He is particularly interested in engineering specialized genetic systems for rapid mutation and evolution to address problems ranging from protein engineering to developmental biology. Liu has been recognized with a number of awards, including the Sloan Research Fellowship, the NIH New Innovator Award, the Beckman Young Investigator Award and the Dupont Young Professor Award.

"The synthetic biology community is an extraordinary one, full of amazing scientists and engineers who have an ambitious vision for the future of bioengineering,” said Liu. “I am lucky to be a part of that group and honored to be recognized by them. I am also deeply thankful for the wonderful scientists in my lab, whose creativity, dedication and kindness make our research possible and make me love what we do."

The award was presented at the annual Synthetic Biology: Engineering, Evolution & Design (SEED) conference in June in New York City, where Liu also delivered a talk on synthetic genetic systems for rapid mutation and continuous evolution in vivo.

– Lori Brandt