Dr. Liu receives 2014 CEOS Connect Award

Congratulations to BME Associate Professor Dr. Jun Liu on receiving the 2014 CEOS Connect Award from Project CEOS at Ohio State! This award grants Dr. Liu $5,000 to be used for networking with professionals in her area of research. Dr. Liu will be working with Dr. C. Ross Ethier from Georgia Tech and Emory University. Dr. Ethier and Dr. Liu will visit each other's respective universities and departments to discuss reserach, network and collaborate with other individuals conducting similar research. Below is a description of Dr. Liu's research:

Research

My research focuses on ocular biomechanics and its non-invasive characterization using quantitative ultrasound. My long-term research goal is to understand the biomechanical factors in regulating ocular health and disease. Quantitative ultrasound is one of the novel experimental tools my laboratory has developed to determine tissue biomechanical properties within its physiological configurations.

My first encounter with ocular biomechanics is in the effort to quantify the effects of corneal properties on the clinical measurements of intraocular pressure (IOP). Ophthalmologists have long suspected that abnormal corneal properties could significantly skew clinical IOP readings. Our laboratory is among the first to theoretically and experimentally demonstrate that corneal stiffness could have greater influence on IOP readings than other better-known factors including corneal thickness. Our work has clarified some major misconceptions related to this most frequently used ophthalmic procedure, the measurement of IOP. The need for non-invasive methods to estimate ocular biomechanical properties in vivo has motivated my lab to build clinically translatable tools using quantitative ultrasound.

My multidisciplinary training and fruitful interactions with clinical scientists locally and internationally have also given me a unique perspective in understanding the connection between of ocular (patho)physiology and biomechanics. I am currently funded by the National Institutes of Health (RO1) to investigate the relationship between the biomechanics of the ocular shell and the dynamics of IOP. This project represents a first step in a series of studies I have envisioned to unravel the biomechanical underpinnings of the disease process in glaucoma and to enable new treatment strategies that will help prevent and arrest this disease.