Welcome to the Liao Research Lab (open on July 1, 2025)!

Chen Liao is an incoming Assistant Professor at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, GEISEL School of Medicine at Dartmouth College. Chen studies physics at the University of Science and Technology of China and received his B.A. in 2010. He developed an interest in synthetic biology and completed his Ph.D. in Bioengineering in the lab of Dr. Ting Lu at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 2018, Chen joined the lab of Dr. Joao Xavier at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center as a postdoc, where he was co-mentored by Dr. Tobias Hohl.

The Liao lab will focus on microbial metabolism within the human gut microbiome. We will employ a combination of computational modeling, microbiology experiments, and clinical data analysis to decipher the complex metabolite-mediated microbe-microbe and host-microbe interactions. Our long-term goal is to (1) uncover the mechanistic links between the intestinal microbiota and human health and (2) develop a computational platform that facilitates the rational design of microbiome-based therapies.