Ganqiang Liu, Ph.D.

Professor, School of Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University

刘甘强

中山大学医学院教授、博士生导师。2014年于澳大利亚The University of Queensland获得生物信息学博士学位（师从著名分子生物学家John Mattick 教授），同年赴哈佛大学医学院、布莱根妇女医院Clemens Scherzer神经基因组课题组进行博士后研究。2017年10月起担任哈佛大学医学院神经病学系讲师。2018年获聘中山大学“百人计划”引进人才加入中山大学医学院。通过对组学和临床数据的整合与分析，为疾病的诊断和进展发现潜在的生物标志物和提供相应的预测工具。特别在帕金森病进展和生物标志物的研究等方面取得了重要学术成果。在Nature Neuroscience等顶尖刊物发表论文多篇，为国内该领域知名专家。

Parkinson: Decoding the Genetic Architecture of Progression and Prognosis

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder around the world, and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified dozens of genetic variants associated with increased risk of sporadic PD. However, the genetic architecture of progression and prognosis, in patients with the disease, has not been well established. We set up the International Genetics of Parkinson’s Disease Progression (IGPP) Consortium, and found different type of heterozygous mutations in the -glucocerebrosidase gene (GBA) are associated with distinct aggressive cognitive decline in PD patients. A clinical-genetic cognitive risk score (termed CRS) to predict global cognitive impairment in patients with Parkinson’s disease were also developed. Furthermore, to characterize how genetic variation influences the progression of Parkinson’s disease over time to dementia which is a major determinant for quality of life, we performed a longitudinal genome-wide survival study and identify 4 loci reached P value < 5x10-8. None of these had been associated with susceptibility loci of PD and risk profile analysis with a polygenic hazard score revealed a substantial aggregate association with dementia risk. It indicates that the assumption of susceptibility triggers equating prognostic drivers may be overly simplistic and a distinct genetic architecture of progression that could inspire a new therapeutic direction and enrich trials.

Career Summary

Dr. Ganqiang Liu received Ph.D. degree in Bioinformatics from the University of Queensland, Australia, training with Professor John Mattick (who pioneered the concept of non-coding RNAs) at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience and at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Australia. In 2014, Dr. Liu joined Professor Scherzer’s laboratory at Harvard Medical School & Brigham and Women’s Hospital as a research fellow and then promote as an Instructor in Neurology at Harvard Medical School in 2017. In the end of 2018, Dr. Liu was appointed as a professor in School of Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University. Dr. Liu’ research is to investigate how the genome functions in the human brain and build a future precision medicine for Parkinson’s, and other neurologic diseases. His current research interest is genetic, transcriptional, and epigenetic regulation in Parkinson’s disease, also in novel experimental and computational methods to uncover biological and biomedical discoveries. Dr. Liu has published many research work in high level journals such as Lancet Neurology, Annals of Neurology, Nature Neuroscience, Brain, Cell Reports.