Research groups
Biography
I graduated with an MBBS-PhD degree from Imperial College School of Medicine in 2018 with Distinctions in Medical Sciences, Clinical Science and Clinical Practice. My PhD was jointly awarded from Imperial College London and the University of Hong Kong with a thesis titled "Clinicopathological investigations of the cholinergic basal forebrain in Lewy body disorders and ageing".
I completed my foundation training at the North West of England Foundation School in Merseyside before being awarded an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship in Neurology at the University of Oxford. During my internal medicine training, I completed the membership exam for the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP).
Currently, I am a specialty registrar in diagnostic neuropathology at the Thames Valley Deanery. I also hold honorary research roles at both the University of Oxford (Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences) and Imperial College London (Division of Brain Sciences), where I remain actively involved in neuropathology research and supervision.
Alan King Lun Liu
MBBS PhD MRCP(UK)
Specialty Registrar in Diagnostic Neuropathology
Research interests
- Neuropathology of Parkinson's disease and Lewy body dementia
- Non-motor and non-dopaminergic aspects of Lewy body disorders
- The cholinergic system in neurodegenerative diseases
- Development and implementation of novel research techniques for translational neuropathology
Technical expertise
- Dissection, histological processing and immunohistochemistry of human post-mortem brain tissues
- Neuropathological assessment of neurodegenerative disease
- Tissue clearing for three-dimensional visualisation of human and rodent brain tissues
- Confocal microscopy
Current research projects
Investigating the morphology, distribution and burden of astrocytic alpha-synuclein aggregation in Parkinson’s disease and incidental Lewy body disease.
Revisiting the pathological staging of Parkinson’s disease using novel antibodies targeting different epitope sites and post-translational modifications of alpha-synuclein.
Optimisation of spatial transcriptomics on post-mortem human brain tissues to explore the role of regional transcriptomic changes on selective vulnerability of neuron and glial cells in Lewy body disorders.
Key publications
Rapid modulation of striatal cholinergic interneurons and dopamine release by satellite astrocytes
Journal article
Stedehouder J. et al, (2024), Nature Communications, 15
Hippocampal CA2 Lewy pathology is associated with cholinergic degeneration in Parkinson’s disease with cognitive decline
Journal article
Liu AKL. et al, (2019), Acta Neuropathologica Communications, 7
Review: Revisiting the human cholinergic nucleus of the diagonal band of Broca
Journal article
Liu AKL. et al, (2018), Neuropathology and Applied Neurobiology, 44, 647 - 662
Next generation histology methods for three-dimensional imaging of fresh and archival human brain tissues
Journal article
Lai HM. et al, (2018), Nature Communications, 9
Nucleus basalis of Meynert revisited: anatomy, history and differential involvement in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease
Journal article
Liu AKL. et al, (2015), Acta Neuropathologica, 129, 527 - 540
Recent publications
Novel Spatial Transcriptomic Tools to Identify Changes in Vulnerable Anatomical Regions and Cells in Parkinson's Disease
Conference paper
Zhao MAZ. et al, (2025), NEUROPATHOLOGY AND APPLIED NEUROBIOLOGY, 51
A case report on a schwannoma-like/Verocay body-prominent benign leiomyoma in the rectum
Journal article
Liu AKL. and Chapman J., (2025), Diagnostic Histopathology
Rapid modulation of striatal cholinergic interneurons and dopamine release by satellite astrocytes
Journal article
Stedehouder J. et al, (2024), Nature Communications, 15
Rapid modulation of striatal cholinergic interneurons and dopamine release by satellite astrocytes
Preprint
Stedehouder J. et al, (2024)
Neuropathological Assessment as an Endpoint in Clinical Trial Design.
Journal article
Gentleman SM. and Liu AKL., (2024), Methods Mol Biol, 2785, 261 - 270