Computational Biologist Bing Liu Dies in Suspected Murder

The University of Pittsburgh scientist, who was studying SARS-CoV-2, was shot to death in his home.

kerry grens
| 1 min read
bing liu university of pittsburgh school of medicine
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Bing Liu, a computational systems biologist at the University of Pittsburgh who was studying the virus that causes COVID-19, was shot to death in his home on May 2. He was 37 years old.

Police insist Liu’s death had nothing to do with his research on SARS-CoV-2, and instead involved a personal matter. Another man, Hao Gu, was found dead in his car near Liu’s home of an apparent suicide, according to news reports.

The Computational and Systems Biology Department at Pitt, where Liu was an assistant research professor, announced in a statement its mourning of Liu’s death. “Dr. Bing Liu was an outstanding researcher, who has earned the respect and appreciation of many colleagues in the field, and made unique contributions to science,” the statement reads.

Liu earned his undergraduate and doctoral degrees from the National University of Singapore. He completed a postdoc at Carnegie Mellon University before joining ...

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  • kerry grens

    Kerry Grens

    Kerry served as The Scientist’s news director until 2021. Before joining The Scientist in 2013, she was a stringer for Reuters Health, the senior health and science reporter at WHYY in Philadelphia, and the health and science reporter at New Hampshire Public Radio. Kerry got her start in journalism as a AAAS Mass Media fellow at KUNC in Colorado. She has a master’s in biological sciences from Stanford University and a biology degree from Loyola University Chicago.

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