BIOE Seminar Series: Assistant Professor Longwei Liu

Sonogenetic Engineering of Programmable Cell and Gene Therapies

Abstract: How can we engineer cells to “hear” sound waves and translate them into precise therapeutic responses? Dr. Longwei Liu’s research integrates sonogenetic engineering, synthetic biology, and molecular imaging to develop remotely controllable cell and gene therapies. His laboratory uses focused ultrasound (FUS) to achieve spatial and temporal control of therapeutic activity in cancer and inherited retinal diseases. Recent work includes engineering ultrasound-controllable CAR-T cells for solid tumors, including feedback-regulated systems that sustain antitumor activity after transient ultrasound stimulation, and developing FUS-controlled CRISPR and genome-editing platforms for precision gene therapy. His group also develops genetically encoded fluorescent biosensors and multiplexed imaging approaches to visualize intracellular signaling and guide therapeutic circuit design. In this seminar, Dr. Liu will highlight advances in sonogenetic CAR-T therapy, remotely controlled genome engineering, and molecular imaging, illustrating how focused ultrasound can serve as a noninvasive interface for programming therapeutic cells and genes in vivo.

Biography: Dr. Longwei Liu is an Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Southern California (USC). He completed his postdoctoral training in Bioengineering at the University of California, San Diego (2019–2022) and received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Tsinghua University in 2018. Dr. Liu’s research integrates synthetic biology, focused ultrasound, genome engineering, and molecular imaging to develop remotely controllable cell and gene therapies for cancer and inherited eye diseases. His work focuses on ultrasound-controllable CAR-T cell therapies, sonogenetic regulation of genome and genetically encoded biosensors for investigating cellular signaling. 
 Dr. Liu has received numerous awards and honors, including the NIH Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA), Baxter Foundation Faculty Fellow Award, NIH Mentored Research Scientist Development Award, and USC Ming Hsieh Institute Research Award. His research has been published in leading journals as first author or corresponding authors, including Cell, Nature Materials, Nature Biomedical Engineering, Nature Communications, and ACS Nano.