Dr. Feng Liu was supervised by Professor Nannan Liu at Auburn university and received his Ph.D. degree in Entomology. After that, he continued his research training in vector biology under the mentorship of professor Ke Dong at Michigan State University, professor Laurence Zwiebel at Vanderbilt University, and professor Omar Akbari at University of California San Diego. By integrating multi-technique approaches, such as single sensillum recording, Xenopus expression system, two-electrode voltage clamp, Drosophila transgenic expression system, and CRISPR/Cas9-based gene editing, he uncovered the cellular and molecular basis of odorant reception in several disease vectors. Dr. Liu has published 31 peer-reviewed articles (19 first-authored articles) in some renowned multidisciplinary research journals, such asNature Communications, Cell Reports, PNAS,and a wide variety of entomological journals, such asInsect BiochemistryandMolecular Biology, Frontiers in Physiology. Dr. Liu’s work has been supported by National Institute of Health (USA) and widely reported by multiple Chinese and English media, such as Scientific American, Science Daily, Sina, Tencent, and Netease.

Revealing the mechanism of pyrethrum’s repellency against Aedes aegypti：pyrethrum repels mosquito by activating olfactory sensory neurons in the mosquito antenna.

Null mutant of Ir76b mosquito presents enhanced neuronal responses to amines and insensitivity to blood. This study reveals that Ir76b gene acts an negative feedback in the neuronal responses evoked by amines and determines the blood perception of sensory neurons in the stylet of mosquitoes.