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Han Liang, Ph.D.

Present Title & Affiliation

Primary Appointment

Assistant Professor, Department of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, Division of Quantitative Sciences, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX

Bio Statement

Dr. Liang received Ph.D. training from the Quantitative and Computational Biology program at Princeton University, which provides graduate education in the interface of biology, the physical sciences, and computational science. His PhD thesis is about RNA informatics on translation termination and alternative splicing. As a postdoctoral researcher, Dr. Liang completed three years of research on computational and evolutionary genomics at the University of Chicago, where his research was about microRNA regulation and gene duplication. Currently, Dr. Liang's research interests include the analysis of next-generation sequencing data,  the integration of cancer genomics data, microRNA regulation, and the evolutionary process of tumor cells. More information is available at http://odin.mdacc.tmc.edu/~hliang1/. 

Office Address

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
1400 Pressler Street
Unit Number: 1410
Houston, TX 77030
Phone: 713-745-9815
Fax: 713-563-4242

Education & Training

Degree-Granting Education

2006 Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, PHD, Quantitative and Computational Biology
2001 Peking University, Beijing, China, BS, Chemistry

Experience/Service

Academic Appointments

Postdoctoral Research Scholar, Ecology and Evolution, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 5/2006-6/2009

Honors and Awards

2012 NIH/NCI Uterine SPORE Career Development Award
2011 UT MD Anderson Cancer Center Nominee for Mary Kay Research Fund 2012 Competition
2008 SMBE Travel Award, SMBE Society
2007 RNA Conference Travel Fellowship, RNA Society
2006 Branco Weiss Fellowship Shortlist, Society in Science, Zurich
2005 Association of Princeton Graduate Alumnae Travel Fellowship, Princeton University
2001 Best Senior Thesis Award, Peking University, China
2000 Outstanding Student Award, Peking University, China
1998 Dupont Fellowship, Peking University, China

Selected Publications

Peer-Reviewed Original Research Articles
1. Li Y, Zhang L, Ball RL, Liang X, Li J, Lin Z, Liang H. Comparative analysis of somatic copy-number alterations across different human cancer types reveals two distinct classes of breakpoint hotspots. Hum Mol Genet 21(22):4957-65, 11/2012. e-Pub 8/2012. PMID: 22899649.
2. Liang H*, Cheung LW, Li J, Ju Z, Yu S, Stemke-Hale K, Dogruluk T, Lu Y, Liu X, Gu C, Guo W, Scherer SE, Carter H, Westin SN, Dyer MD, Verhaak RG, Zhang F, Karchin R, Liu CG, Lu KH, Broaddus RR, Scott KL, Hennessy BT, Mills GB. Whole-exome sequencing combined with functional genomics reveals novel candidate driver cancer genes in endometrial cancer. Genome Res 22(11):2120-9, 11/2012. e-Pub 10/2012. PMCID: PMC3483541.
3. Chen D, Sun Y, Wei Y, Zhang P, Rezaeian AH, Teruya-Feldstein J, Gupta S, Liang H, Lin HK, Hung MC, Ma L. LIFR is a Breast Cancer Metastasis Suppressor Upstream of the Hippo-YAP Pathway and a Prognostic Marker. Nat Med 18(10):1511-7, 9/2012. e-Pub 9/2012. PMID: 23001183.
4. Kim YH*, Liang H*, Liu X, Lee JS, Cho JY, Cheong JH, Kim H, Li M, Downey TJ, Dyer MD, Sun Y, Sun J, Beasley EM, Chung HC, Noh SH, Weinstein JN, Liu CG, Powis G. AMPKα modulation in cancer progression: multilayer integrative transcriptome analysis in Asian gastric cancer. Cancer Res 72(10):2512-21, 5/2012. e-Pub 3/2012. PMID: 22434430 (* co-first and co-corresponding author).
5. Yuan Y, Xu Y, Xu J, Ball RL, Liang H. Predicting the lethal phenotype of the knockout mouse by integrating comprehensive genomic data. Bioinformatics 28(9):1246-52, 5/2012. e-Pub 3/2012. PMCID: PMC3338016.
6. Li J, Roebuck P, Grünewald S, Liang H. SurvNet: a web server for identifying network-based biomarkers that most correlate with patient survival data. Nucleic Acids Res 40(W):W123-126, 5/2012. e-Pub 5/2012. PMID: 22570412.
7. Ji Y, Xu Y, Zhang Q, Tsui KW, Yuan Y, Norris C, Liang S, Liang H. BM-Map: Bayesian Mapping of Multireads for Next-Generation Sequencing Data. Biometrics 67(4):1215-24, 12/2011. e-Pub 4/2011. PMCID: PMC3190637.
8. Cheung LW, Hennessy BT, Li J, Yu S, Myers AP, Djordjevic B, Lu Y, Stemke-Hale K, Zhang F, Ju Z, Cantley LC, Scherer SE, Liang H, Lu KH, Broaddus RR, Mills GB. High Frequency of PIK3R1 and PIK3R2 Mutations in Endometrial Cancer Elucidates a Novel Mechanism for Regulation of PTEN Protein Stability. Cancer Discov 1(2):170-185, 7/2011. PMCID: PMC3187555.
9. Yun J, Frankenberger CA, Kuo WL, Boelens MC, Eves EM, Cheng N, Liang H, Li WH, Ishwaran H, Minn AJ, Rosner MR. Signalling pathway for RKIP and Let-7 regulates and predicts metastatic breast cancer. EMBO J 30(21):4500-14, 2011. e-Pub 8/2011. PMID: 21873975.
10. Liang H, Li WH. Functional Compensation by Duplicated Genes in Mouse. Trends Genet 25(10):441-2, 10/2009. e-Pub 9/2009. PMCID: PMC2764834.
11. Liang H, Li WH. Lowly Expressed Human MicroRNA Genes Evolve Rapidly. Mol Biol Evol 26(6):1195-1198, 6/2009. e-Pub 3/2009. PMCID: PMC2727378.
12. Liang H, Lin YS, Li WH. Fast Evolution of Core Promoters in Primate Genomes. Mol Biol Evol 25(6):1239-1244, 6/2008. e-Pub 3/2008. PMID: 18367463.
13. Liang H, Plazonic KR, Chen J, Li WH, Fernández A. Protein Underwrapping Causes Dosage Sensitivity and Decreases Gene Duplicability. PLoS Genet 4(1):e11, 1/2008. e-Pub 12/2007. PMCID: PMC2211539.
14. Chen J, Liang H, Fernández A. Protein Structure Protection Commits Gene Expression Patterns. Genome Biol 9(7):R107, 2008. e-Pub 7/2008. PMCID: PMC2530859.
15. Liang H, Li WH. MicroRNA Regulation of Human Protein-Protein interaction Network. RNA 13(9):1402-1408, 9/2007. e-Pub 7/2007. PMCID: PMC1950750.
16. Liang H, Li WH. Gene essentiality, gene duplicability and protein connectivity in human and mouse. Trends Genet 23(8):375-8, 8/2007. e-Pub 5/2007. PMID: 17512629.
17. Liang H, Landweber LF. Hypothesis: RNA editing of microRNA target sites in humans? RNA 13(4):463-7, 4/2007. e-Pub 1/2007. PMCID: PMC1831856.
18. Saunders MA*, Liang H*, Li WH. Human Polymorphism at MicroRNAs and MicroRNA Target Sites. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 104(9):3300-3305, 2/2007. e-Pub 2/2007. PMCID: PMC1805605 (*co-first authors).
19. Liang H, Zhou W, Landweber LF. SWAKK: a Web Server for Detecting Positive Selection in Proteins Using a Sliding Window Substitution Rate Analysis. Nucleic Acids Res 34(W):382-384, 7/2006. e-Pub 2006. PMCID: PMC1538794.
20. Liang H, Landweber LF. A Genome-wide Study of Dual Coding Regions in Human Alternatively Spliced Genes. Genome Res 7(2):198-199, 2/2006. e-Pub 12/2005. PMCID: PMC1361714.
21. Liang H, Landweber LF, Fresco JR. Are stop codons recognized by base triplets in the large ribosomal RNA subunit? RNA 11(10):1478-84, 10/2005. PMCID: PMC1370831.
22. Chang WJ, Bryson PD, Liang H, Shin MK, Landweber LF. The Evolutionary Origin of a Complex Scrambled Gene. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 102(42):15149-15154, 10/2005. e-Pub 10/2005. PMCID: PMC1257744.
23. Liang H, Landweber LF. Molecular Mimicry: Quantitative Methods to Study Structural Similarity between Protein and RNA. RNA 11(8):1167-1172, 8/2005. PMCID: PMC1370800.
24. Liang H, Wong JY, Bao Q, Cavalcanti AR, Landweber LF. Decoding the decoding region: analysis of eukaryotic release factor (eRF1) stop codon-binding residues. J Mol Evol 60(3):337-44, 3/2005. PMID: 15871044.
25. Liang H, Cavalcanti AR, Landweber LF. Conservation of Tandem Stop Codons in Yeasts. Genome Biol 6(4):R31, 2005. e-Pub 3/2005. PMCID: PMC1088959.

Invited Articles
1. Liang H, Kim YH. Identifying Therapeutic Targets of Gastric Cancer Through Next-generation Sequencing. Cancer Letters. In Press.
2. Liang H. Decoding the Dual-coding Region: Key Factors Influencing the Translational Potential of a Two-ORF-containing Transcript. Cell Res 20(5):508-9, 5/2010. PMID: 20436511.
3. Liang H, Fernandez A. Evolutionary Constraints Imposed by Gene Dosage Balance. Front Biosci 13:4373-4378, 2008. PMID: 18508516.

Grant & Contract Support

Title: The Role of RNA Editing in Endometrial Tumorgenesis
Funding Source: UTMDACC Gynecologic SPORE in Uterine Cancers Career Development Award
Role: Principal Investigator
Duration: 9/1/2012 - 8/31/2013
 
Title: Multidimensional and Integrative Analysis of the Whole Transcriptome of Gastric Cancer
Funding Source: GS Hogan Gastrointestinal Research Fund
Role: Principal Investigator
Duration: 9/1/2011 - 8/31/2013
 
Title: MD Anderson Cancer Center Bioinformatics Gift - The Lorraine Dell Program in Bioinformatics for Personalization of Cancer Medicine (Core Projects: Breast Cancer, Lung Cancer)
Funding Source: Michael and Susan Dell Foundation
Role: Co-Investigator
Principal Investigator: John Weinstein
Duration: 4/25/2011 - 4/4/2016
 
Title: Cancer Center Support Grant - Bioinformatics Shared Resources (PP-SR22)
Funding Source: NIH/NCI
Role: Statistician
Principal Investigator: Ronald DePinho
Duration: 9/1/2010 - 6/30/2013
 
Title: An Integrative Pipeline for Analysis & Translational Application of TCGA Data (GDAC)
Funding Source: NIH/NCI
Role: Investigator
Principal Investigator: John Weinstein
Duration: 9/29/2009 - 7/31/2014

Last updated: 2/3/2013