Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine

Ruiwu Liu

Associate Researcher
Oak Park Research Building, Suite 2301
Sacramento, CA 95817
PH: 916 734 6414
e-mail

Recent/Current
Research Funding

Graduate Group Affiliations

Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology

Research Interests

Dr. Liu’s primary research focus has been in methods development for combinatory chemistry and applying combinatory chemistry for drug discovery. His current research projects include developing integrin-targeting imaging and therapeutic agents for lymphoma, glioblastoma and liver cancer; developing novel amyloid imaging agents for Alzheimer's disease; and developing small molecule inhibitors of Tec family kinases (e.g., Itk, Btk, Etk and Src) as anti-cancer agents; developing small molecule inhibitors of p21 as novel therapeutics for chemotherapy-resistant cancers, such as kidney cancer; combining in silico screening, combinatorial synthesis of small molecule libraries and in vitro yeast–based high throughput screening to identify inhibitors of androgen receptor DNA binding domain as novel prostate cancer therapeutics.

Representative Publications

Liu R, Marik J, Lam KS. A novel peptide-based encoding system for "one-bead one-compound" peptidomimetic and small molecule combinatorial libraries. J Am Chem Soc 2002, 124: 7678-7680.

Liu R, Enstrom AM, Lam KS. Combinatorial peptide library methods for immunobiology research. Exp Hematol 2003; 31: 11-30.

Lam KS, Liu R, Miyamoto S, Lehman A, Tuscano JM. Applications of one-bead one-compound combinatorial libraries and chemical microarrays in signal transduction research. Acc Chem Res 2003; 36: 370-377.

Liu R, Hsieh C, Lam KS. New approaches in identifying drugs to inactivate oncogene products. Semin Cancer Biol 2004; 14: 13-21.

Liu R, Wang X, Song A, Bao T, Lam KS. Development and application of topologically segregated bilayer beads in one-bead one-compound combinatorial libraries. QSAR & Comb Sci 2005, 24: 1127-1140.

Peng L, Liu R, Marik J, Wang X, Takada Y, Lam KS. Combinatorial chemistry identifies high-affinity peptidomimetics against 41 integrin for in vivo tumor imaging. Nat Chem Biol 2006, 2: 381-389.

Dixon SM, Li P, Liu R, Wolosker H, Lam KS, Kurth MJ, Toney MD. Slow-binding human serine racemase inhibitors from high-throughput screening of combinatorial libraries. J Med Chem 2006, 49: 2388-2397.

Aina OH, Liu R, Sutcliffe JL, Marik J, Pan C., Lam KS. From combinatorial chemistry to cancer targeting peptides. Mol Pharmaceutics 2007, 4: 631-651.

Maezawa I, Hong H-S, Liu R, Wu C-Y, Cheng RH, Kung M-P, Kung HF, Lam KS, Oddo S, LaFerla FM, Jin L-W. High affinity congo red and thioflavin-T derivatives detect A-beta oligomers. J Neurochem 2008, 104: 457-468.

Miyamoto S, Liu R, Hung S, Wang X, Lam KS. Screening of an OBOC combinatorial library for beta-actin identifies molecules active toward Ramos B-lymphoma cells. Anal Biochem 2008, 374: 112-120.

Peng L, Liu R, Andrei M, Xiao W, Lam KS. In vivo optical imaging of human lymphoma xenograft using a library-derived peptidomimetic against alpha4 beta1 integrin. Mol Cancer Ther 2008, 7: 432-437.

Park SH, Wang X, Liu R, Lam KS, Weiss RH. High throughput screening of a small molecule one-bead-one-compound combinatorial library to identify attenuators of p21 as chemotherapy sensitizers. Cancer Biol Ther 2008,7: 2015 - 2022.

Baek HG, Liu R, Lam KS. Development of hydrogel TentaGel shell-core beads for ultrahigh throughput solution-phase screening of encoded OBOC combinatorial small molecule libraries. J Comb Chem 2009, 11: 91-102.

Kenyon NJ, Liu R, O'Roark RM, Huang W, Peng L, Lam KS. An α4β1 integrin antagonist decreases airway inflammation in ovalbumin-exposed mice. Eur J Pharmacol 2009, 603: 138-146.

DeNardo SJ, Liu R, Albrecht H, Natarajan A, Sutcliffe JL, Anderson C, Peng L, Ferdani R, Cherry SR, Lam KS. 111In-LLP2A-DOTA PEG targeting 41 integrin: comparative pharmacokinetics for imaging and therapy of lymphoid malignancies. J Nucl Med 2009, 50: 625-634.

Townsend JB, Shaheen F, Liu R, Lam KS. Jeffamine Derivatized TentaGel Beads and Poly(dimethylsiloxane) Microbead Cassettes for Ultrahigh-Throughput in Situ Releasable Solution-Phase Cell-Based Screening of One-Bead-One-Compound Combinatorial Small Molecule Libraries. J Comb Chem 2010, 12: 700-712.