He is also affiliated with the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN). His current research involves biosensor development using DNA for target recognition. Liu earned his BSc from the University of Science and Technology of China in 2000 and PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2005 studying metal-dependent DNAzymes. After a postdoctoral research in New Mexico, he accepted his current position at the University of Waterloo in 2009.