Fighting Antibiotic Resistance: Fan Liu

Fan Liu is a postdoctoral scientist in Infectious Diseases and Microbiome at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Liu is studying the evolution of antibiotic resistance in order to develop a new method to predict how bacteria might become resistant to antibiotics in the future. This research will help scientists design new therapies and medicines to slow down the pace of antibiotic resistance, a problem that now affects 2 million Americans each year. The L’Oréal USA For Women in Science fellowship will provide Liu funding to pursue this line of research including the purchase of equipment. Having benefitted from the support of a mother and grandmother who are both engineers, Liu is committed to providing young women hands-on experiences in STEM through the Strong Women, Strong Girls program in Boston. Liu, 30, received a Ph.D. in Chemistry at Harvard University and a B.S. in Chemistry at MIT. Born and raised in China, Liu moved to San Diego, California when she was 15 years old and currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts where she enjoys playing double bass and golf in her free time.