Assistant Construction

Yanyun Liu, PhD

U.S. Permanent Resident

**** ****** **** *. *** 6B, Bronx, NY 10461

Cell phone: 347-***-****. Email: ******.*****@*****.***

Qualification Summary:

• Protein/antibody expression, purification, characterization, and modification:

o Expression of protein/antibody in E. coli and mammalian cells (transient and stable transfection).

o Purification of protein/antibody with affinity chromatography, High-pressure Liquid Chromatography

(HPLC) and Fast Protein Liquid Chromatography (FPLC).

o Characterization of protein/antibody by SDS-PAGE, Western Blot, analytical Size Exclusion

Chromatography (SEC), Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA).

o Biotinylation of protein/ antibody.

• Protein/antibody engineering:

o Design and construction of phage-displayed synthetic antibody libraries.

o Homolog scanning and antibody affinity maturation.

o Identification of binding variants using phage ELISAs and competition ELSIAs.

• Molecular biology techniques:

o DNA cloning, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), agarose gel electrophoresis.

o Transient and stable transfections (development of stable mammalian cell lines)

o DNA library construction and high-throughput screening (HTS)

o Random and site-directed mutagenesis

• Chemistry:

o Organic synthesis of small molecules.

o Preparation of metal-ligand complexes and their asymmetric catalysis reactions

o Standard chemistry lab instruments such UV, IR, NMR, HPLC, GC-MS.

• Experience in mentoring undergraduate and graduate students.

• Ability to efficiently manage multiple research projects with excellent organizational skills.

• Outstanding interpersonal skills and experience working with a multidisciplinary team.

• Software: PyMOL, GraphPad Prism, ChemDraw, and Microsoft Office.

Education:

2006 Ph.D. in Chemistry, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

1998 M.Sc. in Chemistry, Suzhou (Soochow) University, P. R. China

1993 B.S. in Chemistry, Suzhou (Soochow) University, P. R. China

Professional Experiences:

• 2008-Present, Research Associate, Department of Biochemistry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY,

USA, Mentor: Prof. Jonathan Lai.

o Investigation of antibody-antigen interaction by targeting viral antigens of HIV-1 with

phage-displayed synthetic antibody libraries. Synthetic antibody libraries were designed, constructed

and screened, thus, synthetic antibodies with specific binding affinity have been identified. Affinity

maturation of these positive binders is ongoing in order to find neutralizing antibodies.

o Investigation of protein-glycan interaction by panning a home-made specific domain-exchanged

synthetic antibody library targeting glycans. Gp120 glycosylated with a conserved cluster of

oligomannose glycans was expressed in mammalian cell, and was used as a panning target protein in

order to indentify synthetic antibodies for recognition of gylans.

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• 06/2007-12/2007, Research Associate, Department of Developmental & Molecular Biology, Albert

Einstein College of Medicine, NY, USA, Mentor: Prof. Nicholas Sibinga.

o Evaluated the role of the Fat1 cadherin in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) injury.

• 01/2007-04/2007, Research Associate, Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, Swiss Federal

Institute of Technology ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Advisor: Prof. Antonio Togni.

o Discovered a new gold (I)-catalyzed intermolecular ring-opening reaction to constitute a new

synthetic route to useful derivatives of homoallylic amines.

• 02/2003-12/2006, PhD Student, Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, Swiss Federal

Institute of Technology ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Advisor: Prof. Antonio Togni.

o Synthesized metal-chiral ligands complexes including Ru-amido complex, dicationic Ni-Pigiphos

complex, and Ti(TADDOLato)Cl2 complexes.

o Explored asymmetric catalysis reactions including transfer hydrogenation, Michael addition, and

electrophilic fluorination catalyzed by the above chiral metal complexes, respectively.

• 08/1998-06/2001, Research Assistant, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of

Sciences, Shanghai, P. R. China. Mentor: Prof. Xiyan Lu and Prof. Zhaoguo Zhang.

o Synthesis of small molecules for drug discovery.

o Palladium-catalyzed chemistry reaction.

• 09/1995-06/1998, Research Assistant, Deparment of Chemistry Suzhou (Soochow) University, Suzhou, P.

R. China. Advisor: Prof. Zengbao Cao.

Memberships:

• New York Academy of Science (NYAS, 2012)

• American Chemical Society (ACS, 2010)

• Swiss Chemical Society (SCG, 2005)

Publications:

1. Stewart, A.; Liu, Y. and Lai, J.R. “A strategy for phage display selection of functional domain-exchanged

immunoglobulin scaffolds with high affinity for glycan targets.” J. Immunol. Method, 2012,

376(1-2):150-5.

2. Liu, Y.; Regula L.K.; Stewart, A. and Lai J.R. “Synthetic Fab fragments that bind the HIV-1 gp41 heptad

repeat regions” Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun, 2011, 413(4):611-5.

3. Shi, W.-J.; Liu, Y.; Butti, P. and Togni, A. ‘‘Gold (I)-and Brønsted Acid-Catalyzed Ring-Opening of

Unactivated Vinylcyclopropanes with Sulfonamides’’ Adv. Synth. Cataly., 2007, 349, 1619-1623.

4. Perseghini, M.; Massaccesi, M.; Liu, Y. and Togni, A. “Structural and Stereochemical Aspects of the

Enantioselective Halogenation of 1,3-Dicarbonyl Compounds Catalyzed by Ti(TADDOLato)

Complexes.” Tetrahedron, 2006, 62, 7180-7190.

5. Lu, C.Y. and Liu, Y. “Electron transfer Oxidation of Tryptophan and Tyrosine by Triplet States and

Oxidized Radicals of Flavin Sensitizers: a Laser Flash Photolysis Study.” Biochim. Biophys. Acta, 2002,

1571, 71-76.

6. Lu, C.Y. and Liu, Y. “Interactions of Lipoic Acid Radical Cations with Vitamins C and E Analogue and

Hydroxycinnamic Acid Derivatives.” Arch. Biochem. Biophys., 2002, 406, 78-84.

7. Xie, X.; Lu, X.; Liu, Y. and Xu, W. “Palladium (II)-catalyzed Synthesis of

Alpha-alkylidene-gamma-butyrolactams from N-allylic 2-alkynamides. Total Synthesis of -Isocynodine and -Isocynometrine.” J. Org. Chem. 2001, 66, 6545-6550.

Seminar and Conference Contributions:

1. Invited talk, “Targeting Viral Antigens with Phage-displayed Synthetic Antibody Libraries”, Long Island

University, 2012.

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2. Liu, Y.; Regula, L.K.; Stewart, A. and Lai JR. “Synthetic Antibodies from a Minimalist Diversity Phage

Display Library That Target the Highly Conserved N-heptad Repeat (NHR) of HIV-1 gp41” PEGS,

Boston, USA, 2011.

3. Liu, Y. and Togni, A. “Transfer Hydrogenation of α-Fluoro-β-keto Esters and α-Fluoro-β-keto Lactams.”

OMCOS, Geneva, Switzerland. 2005.

4. Liu, Y. and Togni, A. “Ni(II)-Catalyzed Enantioselective 1,4-Addition of 1,3-Diketones to

Methacrylonitrile.” SCS_fall_meeting, Lossan, Switzerland, 2005

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