Dr. MengYing Liu is a postdoctoral researcher in the Virology Group at the Department of Biomolecular Health Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, The Netherlands. In 2024 she earned her PhD at Utrecht University, where she investigated the molecular mechanisms underlying host specificity of Influenza A viruses.

Her current research is embedded within an ICRAD consortium conducting a comparative analysis of infection efficiency, pathogenesis and immune response of contemporary swine influenza and coronaviruses. MengYing’s broader scientific interests include human seasonal influenza and novel pandemic and Eurasian swine influenza strains. She focuses on glycobiology aspects of host cell adaptation. In particular, not only glycans exposed on epithelial cells, but also those functioning as decoy receptors in the mucus layer are being functionally analyzed. Her expertise in virus-glycan interactions also extends to other glycan-binding viruses, such as enterovirus D68.

MengYing is first or contributing author of high-impact publications in journals including Nature Communications, PNAS, Nature, and iScience, and has co-authored reviews in Current Opinion in Virology, npj Viruses, and Trends in Microbiology.

She has presented her work at numerous international conferences, including the 8th International Influenza Meeting (First Poster Prize), Options XI, the 9th ESWI Conference (Early Career Scientists Fund recipient), SialoGlyco, and NWO CHAINS.