Xinli Liu

Associate Professor of Pharmaceutics
Department of Pharmacological and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Associate Director, Institute for Drug Education and Research

Office: 
University of Houston College of Pharmacy
Health 2, Room 7048
4349 Martin Luther King Boulevard
Houston, TX 77204-5037

Contact: xliu65@uh.edu - 832-842-8390 - Fax: 713-743-1884

Research:

Dr. Liu is an associate professor of pharmaceutics at University of Houston (UH) College of Pharmacy since 2016 and associate director of Institute for Drug Education and Research at UH since 2021. Prior to joining UH, she was an assistant professor (2008-2015) and tenured associate professor (2015-2016) of pharmaceutics at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Pharmacy. Dr. Liu's research interest is to develop molecularly targeted drug delivery systems, such as nanoparticles, nanoconjugates and prodrugs, to improve tumor specific delivery of small molecule anticancer drugs and biologics (RNAs, peptides, and antibodies) to target cancer metastases, infectious diseases, and autoimmune disease. The Liu Lab research uses pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic principles and employs multidisciplinary approaches, including drug formulation, nanotechnology, chemical synthesis, cancer biology, molecular and animal imaging, mass spectrometry, PK/PD modeling, and molecular docking to optimize therapeutics and study the disposition and efficacy of the nanotherapeutics, drug conjugates, and biologics in preclinical animal models.

Currently, Liu lab research focuses on four main areas: 1) rational design and development of novel nanoparticles and nanoconjugates that can overcome various physiological and biological barriers (such as blood-brain barrier), selectively accumulate at specific anatomical locations such as CNS and bone, efficiently target cancer metastases, and eradicate tumor cells without harming normal cells; 2) preclinical evaluations of novel drug combination and drug delivery systems that can overcome multidrug resistance in cancer and infectious diseases; 3) develop new nanomedicine-based vaccine adjuvant and biomimetic nano-immunoengager to treat cancer and infectious diseases by applying the basic principles of pharmaceutics and biomedical engineering; and 4) develop novel Mass Spectrometry Imaging (MSI) and Spatial Pharmacometabolomics workflows to facilitate drug discovery and development in the era of precision medicine.