Dr Jun-Li Liu studied Biology/Physiology at Peking University, China, where he obtained his BSc (1982) and MSc (1985) degrees. He came to Canada in 1989 for postgraduate study in molecular endocrinology under the late Dr Yogesh C. Patel and received his PhD degree in Experimental Medicine at McGill University in 1995. Dr Liu subsequently worked for five years as a postdoctoral fellow with Dr Derek LeRoith (Diabetes Branch, NIDDK, NIH, Bethesda, MD). There he initiated the work on Cre/loxP-mediated conditional targeting of the mouse IGF-I gene and studied the effect of liver-specific IGF-I gene deficiency in somatic growth and glucose metabolism. In 2000 he was recruited back by McGill University as Assistant Professor of Medicine. The focus of his current research is the role of growth factors in pancreatic islet growth and insulin production, using various knockout and transgenic mice.

•Conditional targeting of mouse IGF-I genes in liver and pancreas;
•The roles of growth hormone, IGF-I and Reg family proteins on pancreatic islet cell growth.

•Reg family proteins on pancreatic islet cell growth and survival;
•IGF-I on pancreatic islet cell growth and glucose metabolism.