Xiaonan received her Ph.D. in Genetics from Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. During her Ph.D. study, she mainly focused on the molecular mechanisms underlying diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and chordoma, a rare bone tumor. Her PhD mentor, Professor Changqing Zeng, praised her for her outstanding performance in the experiments as a golden hand in the lab.

Outside of the lab, Xiaonan likes swimming, ice skating, and decluttering. She also enjoys sharing her research with the public in the form of popular science.

Research experience

2013-2020   PhD student, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

• The effect of type 2 diabetes risk SNPs on the activity of enhancers involved in insulin resistance;
• The role of TGFB3 down-regulation in chordoma formation

2020-2021   Visiting scientist, Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology (Institute of Neuroscience), Chinese Academy of Sciences

• Recombinant adeno-associated viruses(rAAVs) packaging
• Cre-dependent rAAVs screening for gene transfer to human brain

 Selected Publications

1. Qian, J.*, Guan, X.*, Xie, B., Xu, C., Niu, J., Tang, X., Li, C.H., Colecraft, H.M., Jaenisch, R. Liu, X.S.(2023). Multiplex Epigenome Editing of MECP2 to Rescue Rett Syndrome Neurons. Science Translational Medicine Vol 15, Issue 679.
2. Shpokayte, M., McKissick, O., Guan, X., Yuan, B., Rahsepar, B., Fernandez, F., Ruesch, E., Grella, S.L., White, J.A., Liu, X.S., Ramirez, S. (2022). Hippocampal cells segregate positive and negative engrams. Nature Communication Biology. 5, Article number: 1009.
3. Wang, L.*, Guan, X.*, Hu, Q.*, Wu, Z.*, Chen, W.*, Song, L., Wang, K., Tian, K., Cao, C., Zhang, D., Ma, J., Tong, X., Zhang, B., Zhang, J., & Zeng, C. (2021). TGFB3 downregulation causing chordomagenesis and its tumor suppression role maintained by Smad7. Carcinogenesis, bgab022.