Fungal chassis cell engineering, including developing fungal synthetic biology enabling technology, and systematically investigating and unveiling the mechanisms regulating gene expression and secretion through a combination of functional genomics and genetic analyses, and constructing filamentous fungal cell factories capable of producing proteins on an industrial scale.

2001-2005, Bachelor of Environmental Engineering, College of Resources and Environment, Southwest University

2005-2010, PhD of Microbiology, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University

2010−2011, Postdoctoral fellow, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University

2011-2016, Senior Researcher, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin

2016.11 to present, Associate Professor, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin

2018, The fellow of Tianjin Binhai New Area Youth Talent Cultivation Plan

2019, The fellow of Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

1. Zhu Z, Zhang M, Liu D, Liu D, Sun T, Yang Y, Dong J, Zhai H, Sun W, Liu Q*, Tian C*. 2023. Development of the thermophilic fungus Myceliophthora thermophila into glucoamylase hyperproduction system via the metabolic engineering using improved AsCas12a variants. Microbial Cell Factories 22:150.

2. Li N*, Liu Y, Liu D，Liu D, Zhang C, Lin L, Zhu Z, Li H, Dai Y, Wang X, Liu Q*, Tian C*. MtTRC-1, a novel transcription factor, regulates cellulase production via directly modulating the genes expression of the Mthac-1 and Mtcbh-1 in Myceliophthora thermophila. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 2022, 88(19): 1-20

3. Zhang C, Li N, Rao L, Li J，Liu Q*, Tian C*. Development of an efficient C-to-T base-editing system and its application to cellulase transcription factor precise engineering in thermophilic fungus Myceliophthora thermophila. Microbiology Spectrum, 2022, 10(3): 1-21

4. Yang Y, Liu Y, Liu D, Guo W, Wang L, Wang X, Lv H, Yang Y, Liu Q*, Tian C*. Development of a flow cytometry-based plating-free system for strain engineering in industrial fungi. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, 2022, 106: 713-727

5. Guo W, Liu D, Li J, Sun W, Sun T, Wang X, Wang K, Liu Q*, Tian C*. 2022. Manipulation of an alpha-glucosidase in the industrial glucoamylase-producing Aspergillus niger strain O1 to decrease non-fermentable sugars production and increase glucoamylase activity. Frontiers in Microbiology, 13:1029361.

6. Liu D, Liu Q, Guo W, Liu Y, Wu M, Zhang Y, Li J, Sun W, Wang X, He Q, Tian C. 2022. Development of genetic tools in glucoamylase-hyperproducing industrial Aspergillus niger strains. Biology (Basel), 11:1396.

7. Gabriel R, Thieme N, Liu Q, Li FY, Kohler LT, Harth S, Jecmenica M, Ramamurthy M, Gorman J, Simmons BA, McCluskey K, Baker SE, Tian CG, Schuerg T, Singer SW, Fleissner A, Benz JP. 2021. The F-box protein gene exo-1 is a target for reverse engineering enzyme hypersecretion in filamentous fungi. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 118: e2025689118.

8. Liu Q, Li J, Gao R, Li J, Ma G, Tian C*. CLR-4, a novel conserved transcription factor for cellulase gene expression in ascomycete fungi. Molecular Microbiology, 2019, 111: 2, 373-394

9. Liu Q, Zhang Y, Li F, Li J, Sun W, Tian C. 2019. Upgrading of efficient and scalable CRISPR-Cas-mediated technology for genetic engineering in thermophilic fungus Myceliophthora thermophila. Biotechnology for Biofuels 12:293.

10. Liu Q, Gao R, Li J, Lin L, Zhao J, Sun W, Tian C. 2017. Development of a genome-editing CRISPR/Cas9 system in thermophilic fungal Myceliophthora species and its application to hyper-cellulase production strain engineering. Biotechnology for Biofuels 10:1.

Three Projects supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (2 General Programs and 1 Young Scientists Fund); two sub-projects of the National Key Research & Developmental Program of China; two projects of the Tianjin Synthetic Biotechnology Innovation Capacity Improvement Program.