Hailan Liu, MD, PhD

I joined Dr. Yong Xu’s lab as an exchange PhD student in 2018 and earned my PhD from Xiangya School of Medicine in 2021. I subsequently continued my research training in Dr. Xu’s laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow, where my work focused on understanding the neural mechanisms underlying energy balance and obesity. I am currently an Assistant Professor at the University of South Florida, where my research program seeks to identify novel neural circuits and cell populations that coordinate key physiological and behavioral processes, including body weight regulation, feeding behavior, thermoregulation, exercise motivation, and immune homeostasis. Ultimately, my research aims to uncover fundamental brain-body mechanisms that may provide new insights and therapeutic strategies for obesity and related metabolic disorders.