Prof. Chen Liang

Chen Liang is a Professor of Medicine at McGill University, a Senior Investigator at the Lady Davis Institute of Jewish General Hospital, and the Director of McGill Centre for Viral Diseases. He obtained both his BSc and Ph.D. (Molecular Biology) at Nankai University in China, after which he came to McGill for post-doctoral studies at the Lady Davis Institute. In 1999, he was named Assistant Professor in McGill’s Department of Medicine, and in 2017, he was made Full Professor. From 2011 to 2019, he was an Associate Director for Faculty Development at the Lady Davis Institute. His research interests focus on understanding the infection and pathogenesis of highly pathogenic human viruses. His group uses molecular, genomic, and proteomic approaches to decipher the complex interactions between viruses and hosts, with a focus on the antiviral innate immune responses to pathogenic RNA viruses, including HIV-1 and SARS-CoV-2. He has pioneered the application of the CRISPR gene editing technology in curing HIV-1-infected cells by cleaving and eliminating the integrated viral DNA. His group is dedicated to the understanding of the dysregulated interferon and inflammatory cytokine responses in SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals.