Dr. Liya Xu is a research ophthalmologist and ocular cancer investigator whose research focuses on developing liquid biopsy and multi-omics approaches to improve the diagnosis, risk stratification, and biological understanding of ocular malignancies. Her laboratory uses aqueous humor as a tumor-proximal source of molecular information and integrates genomic, epigenomic, fragmentomic, proteomic, and extracellular vesicle analyses to characterize tumor biology and disease evolution.

Her research spans both pediatric and adult ocular cancers, with a particular focus on retinoblastoma and uveal melanoma. In retinoblastoma, her work seeks to define genomic trajectories of tumor evolution and develop minimally invasive approaches for molecular characterization and clinical risk assessment. In uveal melanoma, her laboratory investigates the molecular features associated with early dissemination and metastatic risk by integrating tumor, aqueous humor, and circulating blood-based biomarkers.

A central goal of her research program is to establish liquid biopsy as a high-resolution molecular sensor of ocular and systemic disease, translating multi-omic discoveries into clinically useful biomarkers and precision tools for ocular oncology.

Completed SC CTSI Mentor Training: Yes