Highlighted Publications

Converging mechanism of UM171 and KBTBD4 neomorphic cancer mutations

Xie, Xiaowen*; Zhang, Olivia*; Yeo, Megan J.R.*; Lee, Ceejay*; Tao, Ran; Harry, Stefan A.; Payne, Connor N.; Nam, Eunju; Paul, Leena; Li, Yiran; Kwok, Hui Si; Jiang, Hanjie; Mao, Hiabin; Hadley, Jennifer L.; Lin, Hong; Batts, Melissa; Gosavi, Pallavi M.; D’Angiolella, Vincenzo; Cole, Philip A.; Mazitschek, Ralph; Northcott, Paul A.; Zheng, Ning#; Liau, Brian B.#

Deep mutational scanning of DNMT3A R882H reveals a self-assembly safeguard

Garcia, Emma M.; Lavidor, Olivia R.; Raval, Shaunak; Shekhar, Mrinal; Lue, Nicholas Z.; Liang, Jessica K.; McFadden, Maeve; Hwang, Derek D.; Zepeda, Marcanthony U.; Chen, Luke W.; Carr, Steven A.; Papanastasiou, Malvina; Liau, Brian B.#

Nature Chemical Biology Accepted in Principle | Preprint

UM171 glues asymmetric CRL3-HDAC1/2 assembly to degrade CoREST corepressors

Yeo, Megan J.R.*; Zhang, Olivia*; Xie, Xiaowen*; Nam, Eunju*; Payne, Connor N.; Gosavi, Pallavi M.; Kwok, Hui Si; Iram, Irtiza; Lee, Ceejay; Li, Jiaming; Chen, Nicholas; Nguyen, Khanh; Jiang, Hanjie; Wang, Zhipeng A.; Lee, Kwangwoon; Mao, Haibin; Harry, Stefan A.; Barakat, Idris A.; Takahashi, Mariko; Waterbury, Amanda L.; Barone, Marco; Mattevi, Andrea; Carr, Steven A.; Udeshi, Namrata D.; Bar-Peled, Liron; Mazitschek, Ralph; Cole, Philip A.; Liau, Brian B.#; Zheng, Ning#.

Base editor screens for in situ mutational scanning at scale

Lue, Nicholas Z.; Liau, Brian B.#

Molecular Cell 2023 | Review | Publication | Tweetorial

Drug addiction unveils a repressive methylation ceiling in EZH2-mutant lymphoma

Kwok, Hui Si*; Freedy, Allyson M.*; Siegenfeld, Allison P.; Morriss, Julia W.; Waterbury, Amanda L.; Kissler, Stephen M.; Liau, Brian B.#

Base editor scanning charts the DNMT3A activity landscape

Lue, Nicholas Z.; Garcia, Emma M.; Ngan, Kevin C.; Lee, Ceejay; Doench, John G.; Liau, Brian B.#

Nature Chemical Biology 2022 | Publication | Preprint

An autoinhibitory switch of the LSD1 disordered region controls enhancer silencing

Waterbury, Amanda L.*; Kwok, Hui Si*; Lee, Ceejay*; Narducci, Domenic N.; Freedy, Allyson M.; Su, Cindy; Raval, Shaunak; Reiter, Andrew H.; Hawkins, William; Lee, Kwangwoon; Li, Jiaming; Hoenig, Samuel M.; Vinyard, Michael E.; Cole, Philip A.; Hansen, Anders S.; Carr, Steven A.; Papanastasiou, Malvina; Liau, Brian B.#

Molecular Cell 2024 | Publication | Tweetorial

Coupling CRISPR scanning with targeted chromatin accessibility profiling using a double-stranded DNA deaminase

Roh, Heejin*; Shen, Simon P.*; Hu, Yan*; Kwok, Hui Si; Siegenfeld, Allison P.; Lee, Ceejay.; Zepeda, Marcanthony U.; Guo, Chun-Jie; Roseman, Shelby A.; Comenho, Caroline; Sankaran, Vijay G.; Buenrostro, Jason D.; Liau, Brian B.#

CRISPR-suppressor scanning reveals a nonenzymatic role of LSD1 in AML

Vinyard, Michael E.*; Su, Cindy*; Siegenfeld, Allison P.*; Waterbury, Amanda L.*; Freedy, Allyson M.*; Gosavi, Pallavi M.*; Park, Yongho; Kwan, Eugene E.; Senzer, Benjamin D.; Doench, John G.; Bauer, Daniel E.; Pinello, Luca; Liau, Brian B.#

Nature Chemical Biology 2019 | Publication

Publications & Preprints

Covalent chemical rescue of a transcription factor-corepressor complex

Liu, Chao*; Yost, Karl*; Kwok, Hui Si; Caroli, Jonatan; Waterbury, Amanda L.; Gankhuyag, Nomin; Zhang, Olivia; Harry, Stefan A.; Hansen, Tobias N.; Roh, Heejin; Furui, Airi; Mattevi, Andrea; Liau, Brian B.#.

ACS Central Science Accepted in Principle

Pathway-wide base editing charts chemical-genetic interactions in MAPK signaling

Woods, James*; Hu, Calvin X.*; Jang, Dong Man; Freedman, Camille; Canarelli, Sarah; Kwok, Hui Si; Iram, Irtiza; Eck, Michael J.; Liau, Brian B.#.

Submitted 2026 | Preprint

Base editing charts a sequence-function atlas of Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 at amino acid resolution

Kwok Hui Si*; Morriss Julia W.*; Hu, Calvin X.; Iram, Irtiza; Myung, Yoochan; Siegenfeld, Allison P.; Waterbury, Amanda L.; Yeo, Megan J.; Lee, Ceejay; Camp, Silas; Iqbal, Sumaiya; Liau, Brian B.#

Submitted 2026

A HUWE1 regulatory helix gates ASCL1 degradation through its C-terminal phospho-degron in small cell lung cancer

Masuzawa, Keita*; Dong, Kevin D.*; Hu, Calvin X.; Peng, Ting; Myung, Yoochan; Singh, Shilpa; Li, Xinyue; Wang, Tianchu; Jin, Cyrus; Paulo, Joao A.; Yang, Ka; Schmid, Ernst W.; Booker, Matthew A.; Li, Yixiang; Hong, Deli; Lazo, Suzan; Tolstorukov, Michael Y.; Doench, John G.; Duplaquet, Leslie; Donovan, Katherine A.; Iqbal, Sumaiya; Fischer, Eric S.; Liau, Brian B.; Gygi, Steven P.; Oser, Matthew G.#

Genes and Development 2026 | Publication

Systematic Targeting of Protein Complexes with Molecular COUPLrs

Yang, Diane*; Harry, Stefan A.*; Chong, Harrison B.*; Khandelwal, Neha*; Zhang, Edwin*; Nordenfelt, Natalie S.; Chen, Nicholas; Lee, Christine; Kaluziak, Stefan T.; Codd, Elizabeth M.; Trivedi, Samay; Gohar, Magdy; McKnight, Giovan; Mitchell, Dawn R.; Ge, Maolin; Gao, Chengzhuo; Holmes, Zavontae; Yang, Wenxin; Smith, Abigail E.; Carlin, Alexander D.; Lazarov, Matthew J.; Ibrahim, Sufian M.; Takahashi, Mariko; Zhang, Siwen; Leong, Herman X.; Luna, Hector M.; Stevens, Reilly; Mullin, Paul S.; Ignashkina, Anastasia; Chearavanont, Zander; Emonds, Kim; Popoola, George; Barakat, Idris A.; Onozato, Maristela L.; Mahamdeh, Mohammed; Fujino, Toshio; Gerhartz, Jan; Ackerman, Emily E.; Koh, Huan Yee; Naranbhai, Vivek; Seo, Hyuk-Soo; Dhe-Paganon, Sirano; Sun, Zhen-Yu J.; Heffron, Gregory J.; Hata, Aaron N.; Soberman, Roy J.; Nowak, Radoslaw P.; Ott, Christopher J.; Liau, Brian B.; Iafrate, A. John; Bar-Peled, Liron#

Cancer Discovery 2026 | Preprint | Publication

Proximity-Induced Rewiring of Oncogenic Kinase Triggers Apoptosis

Merz, Manuel L.*; Shoba, Veronika M.*; Pergu, Rajaiah*; Severance, Zachary C.*; Munkanatta Godage, Dhanushka N. P.; Deb, Arghya; Kwok, Hui Si; Singh, Prashant; Singh, Sameek; Allen, Jonathan B.; Tian, Wenzhi; Gosavi, Pallavi M.; Chaudhary, Santosh K.; Anokhina, Viktoriya; Weisberg, Ellen L.; Payne, N. Connor; He, Yao; Dhaliwal, Rohil; Osadchey, Reilly; Shekhar, Mrinal; Mazitschek, Ralph; Rees, Matthew G.; Roth, Jennifer A.; Cui, Qiang; Griffin, James D.; Liau, Brian B.; Choudhary, Amit#

ACS Central Science 2026 | Preprint | Publication

Nano-scaled, fully automated hydrogen/deuterium exchange for analysis of macromolecular assemblies reaching the MDa scale

Raval, Shaunak; Shi, Yuqi; Morriss, Julia W.; Ivanov, Alexander R.; Coales, Stephen; Aphasizheva, Inna; Aphasizhev, Ruslan; Liau, Brian B.; Carr, Steven A.#; Papanastasiou, Malvina#

Molecular & Cellular Proteomics 2026 | Publication

A chemical-genetic interaction between PAF1 and ENL/AF9 YEATS inhibition

Barta, Paige A.; Garnar-Wortzel, Leopold; Bishop, Timothy R.; Hayward, Rachel E.; Hargis, Lauren M.; Shaum, James B.; Kwok, Hui Si; Liau, Brian B.; Cravatt, Benjamin F.; Erb, Michael A.#

RSC Chem. Biol. 2026 | Publication | Preprint

Covalent adduct Grob fragmentation underlies LSD1 demethylase-specific inhibitor mechanism of action and resistance

Waterbury, Amanda L.*; Caroli, Jonatan*; Zhang, Olivia.; Tuttle, Paloma; Liu, Chao; Li, Jiaming; Park, Ji Sung; Hoenig, Samuel M.; Barone, Marco; Furui, Airi, Mattevi, Andrea#; Liau, Brian B.#

Nature Communications 2025 | Publication

DNA methylation insulates genic regions from CTCF loops near nuclear speckles

Roseman, Shelby A.*; Siegenfeld, Allison P.*; Lee, Ceejay; Lue, Nicholas Z.; Liau, Brian B.#

eLife 2025 | Publication | Preprint

Oxidation of retromer complex controls mitochondrial translation

Zhang, Junbing*; Ali, Md Yousef*; Chong, Harrison B.*; Tien, Pei-Chieh; Woods, James; Noble, Carolina; Vornbäumen, Tristan; Ordulu, Zehra; Possemato, Anthony P; Harry, Stefan A.; Fonticella, Jay M.; Fellah Lina; Harrison, Drew; Ge, Maolin; Khandelwal, Neha; Huang, Yingfei; Chauvin, Maëva; Bischof, Anica T.; Hambelton, Grace M.; Gohar, Magdy F.; Zhang, Siwen; Choi, MinGyu.; Bouberhan, Sara; Oliva, Esther; Mino-Kenudson, Mari; Pavlova, Natalya N.; Lawrence, Michael; Gainor, Justin F.; Beausoleil, Sean A.; Bardeesy, Nabeel; Mostolavsky, Raul; Pépin, David; Ott, Christopher J.; Liau, Brian B.; Bar-Peled L#

Nature 2025 | Publication

CTCF/RAD21 organize the ground state of chromatin-nuclear speckle association

Yu, Ruofan; Roseman, Shelby A.; Siegenfeld, Allison P.; Gardner, Zachary; Nguyen, Son C.; Joyce, Eric F.; Jain, Rajan; Liau, Brian B.; Krantz, Ian D.; Alexander, Katherine#; Berger, Shelley L.#

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology 2025 | Publication | Preprint

Uncoupling histone modification crosstalk by engineering lysine demethylase LSD1

Lee, Kwangwoon; Barone, Marco; Waterbury, Amanda L.; Jiang, Hanjie; Nam, Eunju; DuBois-Coyne, Sarah E.; Whedon, Samuel D.; Wang, Zhipeng A.; Caroli, Jonatan; Neal, Katherine; Ibeabuchi, Brian; Dhoondia, Zuzer; Kuroda, Mitzi I.; Liau, Brian B.; Beck, Samuel#; Mattevi, Andrea#; Cole, Philip A.#

Nature Chemical Biology 2025 | Publication

Building the first base editors

Waterbury, Amanda L.; Iram, Irtiza; Liau, Brian B.#

Nature Chemical Biology 2025 | Invited perspective | Publication

DrugMap: A quantitative pan-cancer analysis of cysteine ligandability

Takahashi, Mariko*; Chong, Harrison B*.; Zhang, Siwen*; Lazarov, Matthew J.; Harry, Stefan; Maynard, Michelle; White, Ryan; Murrey, Heather E.; Hilbert, Brendan; Neil, Jason R.; Gohar, Magdy; Ge, Maolin; Zhang, Junbing; Durr, Benedikt R.; Kryukov, Gregory; Tsou, Chih-Chiang; Brooijmans, Natasja; Alghali, Aliyu; Rubio, Karla; Vilanueva, Antonio; Harrison, Drew; Koglin, Ann-Sophie; Ojeda, Samuel; Karakyriakou, Barbara; Healy, Alexander; Assaad, Jonathan; Makram, Farah; Rachman, Inbal; Khandelwal, Neha; Tien, Pei-Chieh; Popoola, George; Chen, Nicholas; Vordermark, Kira; Richter, Marianne; Patel, Himani; Yang, Tzu-Yi; Griesshaber, Hanna; Hosp, Tobias; van den Ouweland, Sanne; Hara, Toshiro; Bussema, Lily; Dong, Rui; Shi, Lei; Rasmussen, Martin Q.; Domingues, Ana C.; Lawless, Aleigha; Fang, Jacy; Yoda, Satoshi; Nguyen, Linh P.; Reeves, Sarah M.; Wakefield, Farrah N.; Acker, Adam; Clark, Sarah E.; Dubash, Taronish; Fisher, David E.; Maheswaran, Shyamala; Haber, Daniel A.; Boland, Genevieve; Sade-Feldman, Moshe; Jenkins, Russel; Hata, Aaron; Bardeesy, Nabeel; Suva, Mario L.; Martin, Brent; Liau, Brian B.; Ott, Christopher; Rivera, Miguel N.; Lawrence, Michael S.#; Bar-Peled, Liron#

Cell 2024 | Publication

Base editor scanning reveals activating mutations of DNMT3A

Garcia, Emma M.; Lue, Nicholas Z.; Liang, Jessica K.; Lieberman, Whitney K.; Hwang, Derek D.; Woods, James; Liau, Brian B.#

ACS Chemical Biology 2023 | Publication | Preprint

Activity-based CRISPR scanning uncovers allostery in DNA methylation maintenance machinery

Ngan, Kevin C.; Hoenig, Samuel M.; Kwok, Hui Si; Lue, Nicholas Z.; Gosavi, Pallavi M.; Tanner, David A.; Garcia, Emma M.; Lee, Ceejay; Liau, Brian B.#

eLife 2023 | Publication | Preprint | Tweetorial

Systematic identification of anticancer drug targets reveals a nucleus-to-mitochondria ROS-sensing pathway

Zhang, Junbing**; Simpson, Claire M.; Berner, Jacqueline; Chong, Harrison B.; Fang, Jiafeng; Ordulu, Zehra; Weiss-Sadan, Tommy; Possemato, Anthony P.; Harry, Stefan; Takahashi, Mariko; Yang, Tzu-yi; Richter, Marianne; Patel, Himani; Smith, Abby E.; Carlin, Alexander D.; Hubertus de Groot, Adriaan F.; Wolf, Konstantin; Shi, Lei; Wei, Ting-Yu; Dürr, Benedikt R.; Chen, Nicholas J.; Vornbäumen, Tristan; Wichmann, Nina O.; Mahamdeh, Mohammed S.; Pooladanda, Venkatesh; Matoba, Yusuke; Kumar, Shaan; Kim, Eugene; Bouberhan, Sara; Oliva, Esther; Rueda, Bo R.; Soberman, Roy J.; Bardeesy, Nabeel; Liau, Brian B.; Lawrence, Michael; Stokes, Matt P.; Beausoleil, Sean A.; Bar-Peled, Liron#

Cell 2023 | Publication

Chromatin complex dependencies reveal targeting opportunities in leukemia

Najm, Fadi J.; DeWeirdt, Peter; Moore, Molly M.; Bevill, Samantha M.; El Farran, Chadi A.; Macias, Kevin A.; Hegde, Mudra; Waterbury, Amanda L.; Liau, Brian B.; van Galen, Peter; Doench, John G.; Bernstein, Bradley E.#

Nature Communications 2023 | Publication

CRISPR-suppressor scanning for systematic discovery of drug-resistance mutations

Ngan, Kevin C.*; Lue, Nicholas Z.*; Lee, Ceejay; Liau, Brian B.#

Current Protocols 2022 | Publication

Polycomb-lamina antagonism partitions heterochromatin at the nuclear periphery

Siegenfeld, Allison P.*; Roseman, Shelby A.*; Roh, Heejin; Lue, Nicholas Z.; Wagen, Corin C.; Zhou, Eric; Johnstone, Sarah E.; Aryee, Martin J.#; Liau, Brian B.#

Nature Communications 2022 | Publication | Preprint | Tweetorial

Profiling the landscape of drug resistance mutations in neosubstrates to molecular glue degraders

Gosavi, Pallavi M.*; Ngan, Kevin C.*; Yeo, Megan J.R.; Su, Cindy; Li, Jiaming; Lue, Nicholas Z.; Hoenig, Samuel M.; Liau, Brian B.#

ACS Central Science 2022 | Publication | Preprint | Tweetorial | ACS Central Science First Reactions

Discovering new biology with drug-resistance alleles

Freedy, Allyson M.; Liau, Brian B.#

Nature Chemical Biology 2021 | Review | Publication

Discovery of C13-aminobenzoyl cycloheximide derivatives that potently inhibit translation elongation

Koga, Yumi*; Hoang, Eileen M.*; Park, Yongho; Keszei, Alexander F.A.; Murray, Jason; Shao, Sichen**; Liau, Brian B.#

Journal of the American Chemical Society 2021 | Publication | Synfacts

Gain-of-function genetic alterations of G9a drive oncogenesis

Kato, S., Weng, Q.Y., Insco, M.L., Chen, K.Y., Muralidhar, S., Pozniak, J., Diaz, J.M.S., Drier, Y., Nguyen, N., Lo, J.A., van Rooijen, E., Kemeny, L.V., Zhan, Y., Feng, Y., Silkworth, W., Powell, C.T., Liau, B.B., Xiong, Y., Jin, J., Newton-Bishop, J., Zon, L.I., Bernstein, B.E., Fisher, D.E.

Cancer Discovery 2020 | Publication

A versatile synthetic route to cycloheximide and analogues that potently inhibit translation elongation

Park, Yongho; Koga, Yumi; Su, Cindy; Waterbury, Amanda L.; Johnny, Christopher L.; Liau, Brian B.#

Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2019 | Publication

Taking a STAP at core promoter–transcriptional cofactor specificity

Siegenfeld, Allison P.*; Lee, Ceejay*; Liau, Brian B.#

Biochemistry 2019 | Invited Commentary | Publication

Uncovering the cellular target of agelastatin A

Park, Yongho; Liau, Brian B.#

Cell Chemical Biology 2017 | Publication

Prior to Liau lab

Transcription elongation factors represent in vivo cancer dependencies in glioblastoma

Miller, T.E., Liau, B.B., Wallace, L.C., Morton, A.R., Xie, Q., Dixit, D., Factor, D.C., Kim, L.Y.J., Morrow, J.J., Wu, Q., Mack, S.C., Hubert, C.G., Gillespie, S.M., Flavahan, W.A., Hoffmann, T., Thummalapalli, R., Hemann, M.T., Paddison, P.J., Horbinski, C.M., Zuber, J., Scacheri, P.C., Bernstein, B.E., Tesar, P.J., Rich, J.N.#

Nature 2017 | Publication

Adaptive chromatin remodeling drives glioblastoma stem cell plasticity and drug tolerance

Liau, B.B.*, Sievers, C.*, Donohue, L.K., Gillespie, S.M., Flavahan, W.A., Miller, T.E., Venteicher, A.S., Hebert, C.H., Carey, C.D., Rodig, S.J., Shareef, S.J., Najm, F.J., van Galen, P., Wakimoto, H., Cahill, D.P., Rich, J.N., Aster, J.C., Suvà, M.L., Patel, A.P.#, Bernstein, B.E.#

Cell Stem Cell 2017 | Publication

RBPJ maintains brain tumor-initiating cells through CDK9-mediated transcriptional elongation

Xie, Q., Wu, Q., Kim., L., Miller, T.E., Liau, B.B., Mack, S.C., Yang, K., Factor, D.C., Fang, X., Huang, Z., Zhou, W., Alazem, K., Wang, X., Bernstein, B.E., Bao, S., Rich, J.N#

Journal of Clinical Investigation 2016 | Publication

Insulator dysfunction and oncogene activation in IDH mutant gliomas

Flavahan, W.A.*, Drier, Y.*, Liau, B.B., Gillespie, S.M., Venteicher, A.S., Stemmer-Rachamimov, A.O., Suvà, M.L., Bernstein, B.E.#

Nature 2016 | Publication

A multiplexed system for quantitative comparisons of chromatin landscapes

van Galen, P., Viny, A.D., Ram, O., Ryan, R.J.H., Cotton, M.J., Donohue, L., Sievers, C., Drier, Y., Liau, B.B., Gillespie, S.M., Carroll, K.M., Cross, M.B., Levine, R.L., Bernstein, B.E.#

Molecular Cell 2016 | Publication

Mediator kinase inhibition further activates super-enhancer-associated genes in AML

Pelish, H.E.*, Liau, B.B.*, Nitulescu, I.I., Tangpeerachaikul, A., Poss, Z.C., Da Silva, D.H., Caruso, B.T., Arefolov, A., Fadeyi, O., Christie, A.L., Du, K., Banka, D., Schneider, E.V., Jestel, A., Zou, G., Si, C., Ebmeier, C.C., Bronson, R.T., Krivtsov, A.V., Myers, A.G., Kohl, N.E., Kung, A.L., Armstrong, S.A., Lemieux, M.E., Taatjes, D.J., Shair, M.D.#

Nature 2015 | Publication

A unified strategy for the synthesis of 7-membered-ring-containing Lycopodium alkaloids

Lee, A.S., Liau, B.B., Shair, M.D.#

Journal of the American Chemical Society 2014 | Publication

Total syntheses of HMP-Y1, hibarimicinone, and HMP-P1
Liau, B.B., Milgram, B.C., Shair, M.D.# Journal of the American Chemical Society 2012, 134, 16765–16772.

Gram-scale synthesis of the A'B'-subunit of angelmicin B
Milgram, B.C., Liau, B.B., Shair, M.D.# Organic Letters 2011, 13, 6436–6439.

Total synthesis of (+)-fastigiatine
Liau, B.B., Shair, M.D.# Journal of the American Chemical Society 2010, 132, 9594–9595.

A study of the effect of Z- and E-olefinic geometry on the rates of ring closure of 13-membered dienes
Liau, B.B., Gnanadesikan, V., Corey, E.J.# Organic Letters 2008, 10, 1055–1057.