Peter Liu, PhD

Peter Y Liu, MBBS (Hons I) FRACP PhD

Investigator, The Lundquist Institute
Professor of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

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Understands the mechanisms by which disordered sleep leads to ill-health, and to develop methods to prevent these ill-effects from occurring without requiring more sleep

Research Description

Dr. Liu’s research focuses on how sleep and hormones influence metabolic and reproductive health throughout life. This work includes understanding how circadian misalignment (as occurs with shiftwork or jet lag) or insufficient sleep (as occurs with the 24/7 lifestyle) causes obesity, insulin resistance and diabetes mellitus. The hope is that understanding the mechanisms by which this occurs could lead to novel methods to prevent the ill-effects of poor quality, insufficient or misaligned sleep on metabolic health without requiring modification of sleep.


In addition, he is researching the effects of how age modifies the effects of sleep on obesity, insulin resistance and diabetes mellitus. For example, are older adults more or less prone to experience the adverse metabolic effects of sleep restriction. Finally, he is a board certified endocrinologist who holds a FDA IND and and has experience in drug development from phase I studies to phase III studies that follow GCP guidelines.
Theme Groups

Education

  • MD, 1993, University of Sydney, Australia
  • PhD, 2003, University of Sydney, Australia

Recent and/or Significant Publications

Kelly MR, Yuen F, Satterfield BC, Auchus RJ, Gaddameedhi S, Van Dongen HPA, Liu PY. Endogenous Diurnal Patterns of Adrenal and Gonadal Hormones During a 24-Hour Constant Routine After Simulated Shift Work. J Endocr Soc. 2022 Sep 29;6(12):bvac153. doi: 10.1210/jendso/bvac153. PMID: 36330292; PMCID: PMC9620969.
Liu PY, Lawrence-Sidebottom D, Piotrowska K, Zhang W, Iranmanesh A, Auchus RJ, Veldhuis JD, Van Dongen HPA. Clamping Cortisol and Testosterone Mitigates the Development of Insulin Resistance during Sleep Restriction in Men. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2021 Aug 18;106(9):e3436-e3448. doi: 10.1210/clinem/dgab375. PMID: 34043794; PMCID: PMC8660069.
Liu PY, Takahashi PY, Yang RJ, Iranmanesh A, Veldhuis JD. Age and time-of-day differences in the hypothalamo-pituitary-testicular, and adrenal, response to total overnight sleep deprivation. Sleep. 2020 Jul 13;43(7):zsaa008. doi: 10.1093/sleep/zsaa008. PMID: 31993665; PMCID: PMC7355405.
Zhang W, Piotrowska K, Chavoshan B, Wallace J, Liu PY. Sleep Duration Is Associated With Testis Size in Healthy Young Men. J Clin Sleep Med. 2018 Oct 15;14(10):1757-1764. doi: 10.5664/jcsm.7390. PMID: 30353813; PMCID: PMC6175801.
Killick R, Hoyos CM, Melehan KL, Dungan GC 2nd, Poh J, Liu PY. Metabolic and hormonal effects of 'catch-up' sleep in men with chronic, repetitive, lifestyle-driven sleep restriction. Clin Endocrinol (Oxf). 2015 Oct;83(4):498-507. doi: 10.1111/cen.12747. Epub 2015 Mar 6. PMID: 25683266; PMCID: PMC4858168.

Videos

Peter Liu MD PhD Discusses Sleep