Draft:Xiaorong Liu (neuroscientist)

Xiaorong Liu is a Professor at the University of Virginia. She completed her PhD at the University of Virginia and postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco. Liu started her lab at the Northwestern University, before moving to the University of Virginia in 2017.

Liu's research combines optical imaging, microelectrode recordings, and fluorescent labeling to study the structural and functional development of retinal cells in the context of retinal disorders, such as glaucoma.

Awards and Honors

 * Liu received the Dr. Douglas H. Johnson Award for Glaucoma Research in 2011 while working at Northwestern University. This award is given each year to a researcher in the National Glaucoma Research program whose proposal displays promising and innovative ideas within the field of glaucoma.


 * While also at Northwestern University, Liu received the William & Mary Greve Special Scholar Award in 2012 to fund her glaucoma and retina research.


 * In 2019, Liu received the Mead Honored Faculty Award, which is awarded to a number of University of Virginia faculty members each year to fund their own project through the Mead Endowment Program. Within the program, each awardee creates their own “Dream Idea” project to engage with a small group of students, with the intent to form a deeper bond between faculty and students within the university.


 * Liu received the Shaffer Grant in 2023 from the Glaucoma Research Foundation, which is given to aid and advance an investigator’s project in glaucoma research. According to Andrew Iwach, MD, the Glaucoma Research Foundation Board Chair, the Shaffer Grants are intended to aid the innovative ideas within the field of glaucoma that would typically not be funded using traditional sources of funding. Liu was awarded this grant to fund her research on “An In Vivo Biomarker to Monitor Glaucoma Progression.”

Personal Life
Liu married her husband, Jianhua ‘JC’ Cang in 1997 in Charlottesville, Virginia while they were both PhD students at UVA.

Selected Publications

 * Cang, Jianhua, et al. “Development of Precise Maps in Visual Cortex Requires Patterned Spontaneous Activity in the Retina.” Neuron, vol. 48, no. 5, 8 Dec. 2005, pp. 797–809, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16337917/, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2005.09.015.
 * Mathew, Biji, et al. “Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Derived Extracellular Vesicles and Retinal Ischemia-Reperfusion.” Biomaterials, vol. 197, Mar. 2019, pp. 146–160, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6425741/, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biomaterials.2019.01.016.
 * Souma, Tomokazu, et al. “Angiopoietin Receptor TEK Mutations Underlie Primary Congenital Glaucoma with Variable Expressivity.” The Journal of Clinical Investigation, vol. 126, no. 7, 6 June 2016, pp. 2575–2587, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4922711/, https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI85830.
 * Thomson, Benjamin R., et al. “A Lymphatic Defect Causes Ocular Hypertension and Glaucoma in Mice.” The Journal of Clinical Investigation, vol. 124, no. 10, 9 Sept. 2014, pp. 4320–4324, www.jci.org/articles/view/77162, https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI77162.
 * Wang, L., et al. “Visual Receptive Field Properties of Neurons in the Superficial Superior Colliculus of the Mouse.” Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 30, no. 49, 8 Dec. 2010, pp. 16573–16584, https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.3305-10.2010.