Xiaoliang Sunney Xie, the Lee Shau-kee Professor of Peking University, is an internationally renowned biophysical chemist. He received his BSc in chemistry from Peking University in 1984, and his PhD in physical chemistry in 1990 from UC San Diego. After a brief postdoctoral appointment and a six-year career at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, he became the first tenured professor at Harvard University among Chinese scholars who went to the US since the reform in China. He was the Mallinckrodt Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University from 2009 to 2018. Among his numerous honors are the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, the American Chemical Society’s Peter Debye Award, the Biophysical Society Founders’ Award, Qiu Shi Outstanding Scientist Award and Zhongguancun Outstanding Contribution Prize. He was granted the "Outstanding Achievement Award" by Professional Committee of tumor markers of China Anti Cancer Association. As a pioneer of single molecule biophysical chemistry, coherent Raman scattering microscopy, and single cell genomics, he made major contributions to the emergence of these fields. Furthermore, Xie has made advances on medical applications of label-free optical imaging and single cell genomics. In particular, his inventions for in vitro fertilization have benefited thousands of couples in China in avoiding the transmission of their monogenic diseases to newborns.

　　Prof. Xie’s current research interests include:

1. Development of single-cell sequencing technology: single-cell genome sequencing, transcriptome sequencing, methylation sequencing, chromatin three-dimensional result analysis, chromatin openness detection and single-cell multi-omics.
2. Application of single cell sequencing technology in gene expression regulation: mechanism of gene expression regulated by transcription factors, the dynamic changes of epigenetic modifications during early embryonic development, how epigenetic coordination affects the construction of gene regulation network, etc.
3. Application of single cell sequencing technology in medical Transformation: Determination of the association between epigenetic features and degenerative diseases at spatial scale using animal models and clinical samples.

Selected Publications

1. Wu Honggui et al, (2024), "Simultaneous single-cell three-dimensional genome and gene expression profiling uncovers dynamic enhancer connectivity underlying olfactory receptor choice”. Nature Methods.
2. Cao Yunlong et al,(2023), "Imprinted SARS-CoV-2 humoral immunity induces convergent Omicron RBD evolution," Nature.
3. Cao Yunlong et al, (2022), “Omicron escapes the majority of existing SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies.” Nature.
4. Wu Honggui et al, (2022), “Highly sensitive single-cell chromatin accessibility assay and transcriptome co-assay with METATAC.” PNAS.
5. Chapman Alec R. et al, (2022),"Correlated gene modules uncovered by high-precision single-cell transcriptomics," PNAS.