Rate My Professor Aimin Liu

Aimin Liu is Professor of Chemistry and Lutcher Brown Distinguished Chair in Biochemistry in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Texas at San Antonio, where he has served since January 2016. He previously held the position of Distinguished University Professor at Georgia State University from 2015 to 2016, Professor from 2012 to 2015, and Associate Professor from 2008 to 2012. Earlier in his career, Liu was Associate Professor and Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Mississippi Medical Center from 2008 and 2002 to 2008, respectively. He earned a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Biophysics from Stockholm University in 2000 and a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Science and Technology of China. His postdoctoral training included work at the University of Minnesota's Center for Metals in Biocatalysis from 2000 to 2002. Liu's research in the Metalloprotein Research Laboratory centers on amino acid metabolism involving tryptophan, cysteine, and tyrosine; protein-derived cofactors from residue crosslinks; mechanistic enzymology; redox biochemistry; free radical mechanisms in chemical biology; and metalloprotein-mediated redox sensing and signaling. He employs techniques such as biophysical EPR and ENDOR spectroscopies, X-ray crystallography, cryo-EM, stopped-flow kinetics, LC-MS, NMR, and genetic code expansion.

Liu has received prestigious awards including election as a 2021 AAAS Fellow in Chemistry, Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2021, member of the UTSA Academy of Distinguished Researchers in 2021, and a three-year NSF Accomplishment-Based Renewal grant in 2022. Other honors encompass the Paul D. Boyer Award for Research Excellence in 2002, Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award in 2003, and Outstanding Senior Faculty Award from Georgia State University in 2014. His influential publications include 'In situ structural observation of a substrate- and peroxide-bound high-spin ferric-hydroperoxo intermediate in P450 enzyme CYP121' (J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2023), 'Protein-derived cofactors: Chemical innovations expanding enzyme catalysis' (Chem. Soc. Rev., 2025), 'Structural insights into 2-oxindole-forming monooxygenase MarE: Divergent architecture and substrate positioning versus tryptophan dioxygenases' (J. Biol. Chem., 2025), 'Catalase-peroxidase (KatG): A potential frontier in tuberculosis drug development' (Crit. Rev. Biochem. Mol. Biol., 2024), and 'Charge maintenance during catalysis in non-heme iron oxygenases' (ACS Catal., 2022). These contributions have advanced knowledge of enzyme catalysis, cofactor biogenesis, C-H/C-F bond activation, and potential therapeutic applications.