Dr. Liu’s research focuses on how sleep and hormones influence metabolic and reproductive health throughout life. This work includes understanding how circadian misalignment (as occurs with shiftwork or jet lag) or insufficient sleep (as occurs with the 24/7 lifestyle) causes obesity, insulin resistance and diabetes mellitus. The hope is that understanding the mechanisms by which this occurs could lead to novel methods to prevent the ill-effects of poor quality, insufficient or misaligned sleep on metabolic health without requiring modification of sleep.

In addition, he is researching the effects of how age modifies the effects of sleep on obesity, insulin resistance and diabetes mellitus. For example, are older adults more or less prone to experience the adverse metabolic effects of sleep restriction. Finally, he is a board certified endocrinologist who holds a FDA IND and and has experience in drug development from phase I studies to phase III studies that follow GCP guidelines.