Ping Liu

Ping Liu (born 1964) Liu realised that working as a doctor in New Zealand would be difficult due to the language barrier, so made the decision to retrain as a researcher. and began a PhD in the Department of Psychology, supervised by David Bilkey, the following year. and rose to full professor in 2020. She is part of the Otago's Brain Health Research Centre.

Liu's research focuses on neurodegenerative disorders such as schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease, and on the changes in memory, learning and brain metabolism during normal ageing. Liu's research group uses animal models and post-mortem human brain tissue to investigate how these changed processes lead to disease, and to try to identify possible diagnostic tests and therapeutic targets. In particular, Liu believes that arginine metabolites might present a less-invasive and costly test for Alzheimer's disease than the present diagnostic tests of brain scans and cerebrospinal fluid testing. It might also be possible to diagnose people earlier through such biomarkers. Liu is also investigating whether arginine metabolism differences might be involved in the clinical differences seen between early and late-onset Alzheimer's disease.

Liu's group is also researching the effects of prenatal viral exposure in children.

Selected works