Liang Lab Director

Dr. Bo Liang is Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at Emory University School of Medicine and the Co-Scientific Director of the Robert P. Apkarian Integrated Electron Microscopy Core (IEMC) at Emory University. Dr. Liang is also the Co-Director of the Biochemistry Departmental Seminar Program. Dr. Liang serves on the Department of Biochemistry Recruitment Committee and the Executive Committee of the Microbiology and Molecular Genetics (MMG) Graduate Program at Emory.

Dr. Liang has a successful track record of interdisciplinary research and creativity throughout his scientific career. Before coming to Emory in 2016, Dr. Liang completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology (BCMP) and Microbiology and Immunobiology (MBIB) at Harvard Medical School (HMS) (2016) under the supervision of Professors Stephen Harrison and Sean Whelan. At HMS, Dr. Liang mainly focused on the structural and functional analysis of a multifunction viral RNA polymerase, the L protein of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), using single-particle cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM). Two significant contributions resulted from his work: 1) the determination of the first near-atomic cryo-EM structure of an asymmetric protein with less than 250 kDa, which represents a landmark in the evolution of cryo-EM; 2) the first atomic view of the RNA synthesis machinery of non-segmented negative-sense (NNS) RNA viruses. Dr. Liang received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics at Florida State University (FSU) (2009). As a graduate student and two-time American Heart Association (AHA) Predoctoral Fellow with Professor Hong Li, Dr. Liang received outstanding x-ray crystallography training, where he focused on box H/ACA ribonucleoproteins (RNPs) that are essential for ribosome and spliceosome maturation. His primary contribution was determining a set of crystal structures representing key stages of the box H/ACA RNP assembly and function. Before that, Dr. Liang earned dual bachelor’s degrees in Biology and Computer Science at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) (2004). The intensive and multidisciplinary training provided him with a solid background in biology and life sciences and critical computer scripting and coding skills.

Dr. Liang is broadly interested in the physiological function and structural basis of biologically important complexes in space and time. His primary scholarly focus is to uncover the molecular mechanisms of human disease-associated macromolecular machinery and large assemblies, including ribonucleoprotein complexes and membrane proteins, using integrated approaches cryo-EM, x-ray crystallography, and fluorescence light microscopy. Detailed descriptions of the current research in the Liang laboratory could be found on the Research page.

Dr. Liang has successfully collaborated with many researchers resulting in multiple publications in leading peer-reviewed journals including Cell, Molecular Cell, Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Nature Communications, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Journal of Virology, and Journal of Biological Chemistry. The full publication list with links can be found on the Publications page.

Dr. Liang has been a member of the Biophysical Society, the RNA Society, the Protein Society, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB), the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), the American Society of Virology (ASV), the American Crystallographic Association (ACA), and the Microscopy Society of America (MSA). Dr. Liang has routinely attended and given talks and posters in regional, national, and international conferences and meetings such as the Annual Meetings from above Societies, Southeastern Regional Virology Conference, Keystone Symposia (KS), Gordon Research Conference (GRC), and International Conference on Negative Strand Viruses.

Dr. Liang serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Molecular Cell Biology (2017-) and the Journal of Virology (2021-). He was a judge for the Postdoc Research Symposium and ASBMB Research Poster Competition. Dr. Liang has frequently been invited to review manuscripts for many national and international scientific peer-reviewed journals, such as Acta Crystallographica Section D/F, Nature Communications, Nature Protocols, NSMB, Nucleic Acids Research, Journal of Virology, PLOS Pathogens, Protein Science, PNAS, Science, and Virology.

Throughout his career, Dr. Liang has participated in multiple critical services aside from his scientific research. For example, Dr. Liang served as the president of a student organization during graduate school, a trainee committee member of BCMP at HMS, and the chair of the Harvard Medical Postdoctoral Association (HMPA).

Dr. Liang is a strong advocate of research education and training for all trainees, including postdocs, research specialists, lab assistants, graduate, undergraduate, and high school students in the Liang laboratory. His philosophy of research education and training is to encourage critical thinking and stimulate biochemical discovery and effective communications with trainees. Engaging trainees at different levels to effectively expand knowledge in science for future generations and greatly enrich the dynamics and culture of the laboratory. Dr. Liang is also dedicated to integrating research and education and broadening the participation of underrepresented trainees.

As a faculty member of the Department of Biochemistry at Emory, Dr. Liang teaches two graduate minicourses annually: Foundations of BCDB (BCDB 502) and Virology (IBS 513). While Dr. Liang does not teach undergraduates in class, he advocates innovative undergraduate education in the research laboratory. Dr. Liang adapted the "flipped classroom" concept and integrated flipped learning into the Liang laboratory research program. Dr. Liang has established two research programs for students in the Liang laboratory, the Regular Research Program (RRP) and the Summer Research Program (SRP), to offer hands-on research experience to motivated students with diverse backgrounds. The RRP runs in the fall and spring semesters and is primarily devoted to Emory undergraduates (current and alumni can be found on the Alumni page). The SRP recruits students from various colleges, universities, and high schools across the country (the participants can be found on the Current Members page). Dr. Liang has tremendous success in both programs, reflected through high retention rates of students and frequent requests to join the programs.

Dr. Liang’s research expertise and education experience have uniquely positioned him to tackle challenging scientific problems and advance the infrastructure and implementation of research-oriented education. Success in the programs of the Liang laboratory will significantly advance the field and promote research education. His long-term vision is to make significant contributions to scientific research and to promote teaching, training, and learning for the next generations of students and scholars.

Dr. Liang's School of Medicine faculty profile.