• I graduated with a BSc Molecular Biomedical Sciences in the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2013.
  • I joined the School of Biomedical Sciences at the Chinese University of Hong Kong to pursue my PhD study and graduated in 2017.
  • My PhD project focused on the brain-gut axis in Alzheimer’s disease.
  • I developed the functional assay to record slow wave potentials at the GI tract using the microelectrode array technique
  • I am now a postdoctoral fellow focusing on electrophysiology and pharmacology of GI slow waves

Research interests

Gut dysrhythmia
  • Abnormal gut rhythms affect our daily life very often in which we suffer from gut symptoms such as abdominal pain, diarrhea, constipation, vomiting and nausea, etc.
  • The mechanism of gut dysrhythmia remains largely unknown. It involves numerous of neurotransmitters and receptors, and complex communications between the central and enteric nervous systems
  • I developed the functional assay to evaluate drug effects on GI slow waves using the microelectrode array platform
  • I am exploring the pharmacology of GI slow waves to find the answer towards underlying mechanism of gut dysrhythmia
  • I am also on the way to commercialize our drug screening platform for building a drug database with physiological data








​​The myenteric plexus of colon of the mouse. Neurons in green. ICCs in red. Nuclei in blue.
Alzheimer’s diseases
  • In the past 40 years of Alzheimer’s research, clinical trials for new treatment of AD had failed. The only available treatments nowadays remain the same with four acetylcholinesterase inhibitors and an NMDA antagonist, memantine, which are symptomatic treatment, but not a cure
  • While > 90% of AD research focus on using transgenic models. In 2020, > 94% of AD cases are sporadic late-onset happened in people aged over 65 without family history for the disease
  • We believe a revolutionary non-transgenic model to represent the majority of AD population is required
  • Our research group had developed a new mouse model based on the prion-like hypothesis of beta-amyloid. We injected oligomeric beta-amyloid into the gut wall, and found significant memory deficits a year after. We believe this model is going to help us understand a novel mechanism of AD onset along the brain-gut axis, and develop potential treatment against it.
  • My PhD project had discovered that diets with soy flavonoids could delay the onset of gut-seeded AD progression. We believe that neuroprotective diets will benefit the aging society and keep us away from neurodegenerative diseases.

Major Publications

  1. Liu J.Y.H.*, Du P., Lu Z., Kung J.S.C., Huang I.B., Hui J.C.M., Ng H.S.H., Ngan M.P., Cui D., Jiang B., Chan S.W., Rudd J.A. (2021) Involvement of TRPV1 and TRPA1 in the modulation of pacemaker potentials in the mouse ileum. Cell calcium. 97:102417. [PMID: 33962108] 
  2. Liu J.Y.H., Rudd J.A., Du P.* (2021) A pipeline for phase-based analysis of in vitro micro-electrode array recordings of gastrointestinal slow waves. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. [PMID: 34891286]
  3. Liu J.Y.H.*, Du P., Rudd J.A. (2020) Acetylcholine exerts inhibitory and excitatory actions on mouse ileal pacemaker activity: the role of muscarinic versus nicotinic receptors. American journal of physiology: Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology. [PMID: 32475128]
  4. Liu J.Y.H., Sun Y., Sommerville N., Ngan M.P., Ponomarev E.D., Lin G., Rudd J.A.* (2020) Soy flavonoids prevent cognitive deficits induced by intra-gastrointestinal administration of beta-amyloid. Food and Chemical Toxicology. 141: 111396. [PMID: 32417364]
  5. Liu J.Y.H.*, Du P., Chan W.Y., Rudd J.A. (2019) Use of a microelectrode array to record extracellular pacemaker potentials from the gastrointestinal tracts of the ICR mouse and house musk shrew (Suncus murinus). Cell calcium. 80:175-188. [PMID: 31125825]
  6. Liu J.Y.H.*, Lin G., Fang M., Rudd J.A. (2018) Localization of estrogen receptor ERα, ERβ and GPR30 on myenteric neurons of the gastrointestinal tract and their role in motility. General and Comparative Endocrinology. 272:63-75. [PMID: 30502347]

Collaborative Publications

  1. Lu Z., Zhou Y., Tu L., Chan S.W., Ngan M.P., Cui D., Liu J.Y.H., Huang I.B., Kung J.S.C., Hui C.M.J., Rudd J.A.*(2020) Sulprostone-Induced Gastric Dysrhythmia in the Ferret: Conventional and Advanced Analytical Approaches. Frontiers in Physiology. [PMID: 33488391]
  2. Sun Y., Sommerville N.R., Liu J.Y.H., Ngan M.P., Poon D., Ponomarev E.D., Lu Z., Kung J.S.C., Rudd J.A.* (2020) Intra-gastrointestinal amyloid-β1-42 Oligomers Perturb Enteric Function and Induce Alzheimer's Disease Pathology. The Journal of Physiology. [PMID: 32617993]
  3. Peng D.*, Liu J.Y.H., Sukasem A., Qian A., Calder S., Rudd J.A. (2020) Recent progress in electrophysiology and motility mapping of the gastrointestinal tract using multi-channel devices. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand. Review articles.
  4. Suen H.C., Qian Y., Liao J., Luk C.S.A., Lee W.T., Ng J.K.W., Chan T.T.H., Hou H.W., Li I., Li K., Chan W.Y., Feng B., Gao L., Jiang X., Liu Y.H., Rudd J.A., Hobbs R., Qi H., Ng T.K., Mak H.K., Leung K.S., Lee T.L.* (2019) Transplantation of Retinal Ganglion Cells Derived from Male Germline Stem Cell as a Potential Treatment to Glaucoma. Stem cells and development. Published online. [PMID: 31580778]
  5. Wang H., Lu Z., Liu Y.H., Sun Y., Tu L., Ngan M.P., Yeung C.K., Rudd J.A.* (2018) Establishment of a radiotelemetric recording technique in mice to investigate gastric slow waves: Modulatory role of putative neurotransmitter systems. Experimental Physiology. 103:827-837. [PMID: 29667248]
  6. Dukhinova M., Kuznetsova I., Kopeikina E., Veniaminova E., Yung A.W.Y., Veremeyko T., Levchuk K., Barteneva N.S., Wing-Ho K.K., Yung W.H., Liu J.Y.H., Rudd J., Yau S.S.Y., Anthony D.C., Strekalova T., Ponomarev E.D.* (2018) Platelets mediate protective neuroinflammation and promote neuronal plasticity at the site of neuronal injury. Brain, behavior, and immunity. 74:7-24. [PMID: 30217533]