Making a big transition from Grad school to her postdoc, Dr. Xiao Liu pivoted from studying neuron regeneration to working in the field between neuroscientists and cell biology at Berkeley.
Xiao is interested in learning how the size of a neuron impacts the overall development of an organism. The size of a cell typically correlates with that of a genome, which is the entire set of DNA instructions found in a cell. Taking advantage of the fact that genome size is easier to manipulate in amphibians, Xiao uses frogs as a model system.
Her future goal is to continue working in the field of neuroscience, working on how size in general controls functioning in the nervous system. She intends to combine different model systems to establish her own research. Her end goal is to figure out how neuron size impacts the development timeline and the functional output of the nervous system.
Even though research can become frustrating and exhausting at times, one of the things that has kept Xiao determined all these years is the acceptance of her role as a researcher and the limitations in her field.
“You can't control biology,” said Xiao. “You have to establish a great system. You establish a great assay where you can measure things, where you can examine things. But if it's not there, it's not there. It's just biology.”
Another factor that keeps Xiao motivated is the liveliness of the campus. She enjoys working with and training students because it allows her to be surrounded by new energies and ideas.
“I always can feel a bubbly atmosphere around me and that gives me motivation to do things,” she added.
Xiao is also very fond of the sunny weather in California and likes to go hiking in different National Parks.
“There's always sunshine. That's my favorite,” she said.