Affiliation: Leiden University Medical Center

Sijia Liu performed her PhD studies in cell biology at Leiden University Medical Center under supervision of Prof. Peter ten Dijke. Her research focused on TGF-β signaling in cancer progression. She identified deubiquitinating enzyme UCHL1 as a candidate oncoprotein that promotes TGF-β-induced triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) metastasis. She currently investigates a selective UCHL1 activity inhibitor for its drug potential for TNBC therapy and develops a cell permeable fluorescent activity-based probe to monitor UCHL1 activity in vivo.