Simin Liu

Dr. Liu is currently Distinguished Professor and Chairman of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). His research group has worked in the global health space for three decades establishing a wide variety of collaborative research projects in diverse communities around the world, from which >500 research reports in top-tier biomedical journals have been published. (Google Scholar list him as one of the top scientists with H-index >100 in 2015).. Dr. Liu's work spans from the fundamental investigation of the genetic basis for cardiometabolic diseases to clinical epidemiology, risk modeling, and interventions in diverse populations, ultimately developing what he coins the G6P framework integrating data from diverse platforms and sources for causal inference. Recent work has been at the interface of nutrition and genomics with an emphasis on understanding their interactions. His research has identified multiple genetic and biochemical markers and gene-nutrient interactions for diseases and health outcomes, including germ-line mutations in multiple genes and their interactions with dietary and environmental elements. Incorporating genotypes and plasma phenotypes into risk prediction, his lab was the first to show the causal role of SHBG geneotypes and phenotyps in diabetes pathogenesis and validate its clinical utilities in diverse human populations, opening a new path for early detection and risk management of the disease. Using biomarkers for dietary carbohydrates, his lab was among the first to introduce dietary glycemic load (GL) and validate its clinical utility for glycemic control; his lab provided the first prospective evidence linking high GL to increased cardiovascular risk. At UCLA, he co-founded the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Inter-School Program in Metabolic Disease, then one of the few cross-disciplinary doctoral programs in the U.S. aimed at educating scientists capable of integrating population-based quantitative disciplines with laboratory-based sciences. He has mentored and supervised >100 undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral fellows. Dr. Liu is an elected fellow/member of several medical societies including the AHA, ASCI, and the American Epidemiological Society (AES). I have also served as a consultant for several national and international authorities addressing medicine, nutrition, and public health issues.