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Research Interests: Statistical Genetics and Genetic Epidemiology;
Human Population and Evolutionary Genetics; Bioinformatics and Biostatistics; Computational genomics.
Dr. Hongyan Xu joined the Medical College of Georgia in November 2005
as an assistant professor. Dr. Xu received his B.S. in biophysics at Fudan University,
Shanghai, China, where he received strict training in both biology and mathematics. Then he moved on to genetic research for his M.S. in genetics. During this period,
he participated in many joint research projects between the Institute of Genetics, Fudan University and Chinese National Human Genome
Center at Shanghai, where he received training in human genome research from data generation to data analysis. Upon graduation, he was admitted to the Human and Molecular Genetics program at the University of
Texas-Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston as a Ph.D. student and worked as a research assistant in the Human Genetics
Center, UT-Health Science Center at Houston, where he received systematic trainings in human population and statistical genetics.
After he completed his Ph.D. degree, he did his postdoctoral training at the Computational Genetics Section, Department of Epidemiology,
the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. The major focus of his postdoctoral training is statistical genetics and genetic
epidemiology. His postdoctoral training was supported by donor-sponsored Dauphin Postdoctoral Fellowship in Cancer Prevention.
The long-term research goals of Dr. Xu's laboratory are to characterize patterns of genetic variation within and between
human populations and to use this information to address fundamental problems in the context of human complex diseases and
evolution. To this end, the research projects are pursued in two broad and interrelated areas: 1) human population and evolutionary
genomics and 2) elucidating the genetic architecture of complex diseases of public health significance, such as cardiovascular disease,
type 2 diabetes, various cancers and mental diseases, and studying functional genomics.
Theoretical, statistical,
and computational tools are being developed, including linkage & linkage disequilibrium based approaches and admixture mapping for these studies.
Teaching Areas: Biological Sequence Analysis,
Statistical
Genetics
Selected Publications:
Xu, H. and Shete, S. Effects of population structure on genetic association studies.
BMC Genetics (In Press)
Xu, H., Chakraborty, R. and Fu, Y.X. Mutation rate variation at human dinucleotide
microsatellites. Genetics 70 : 305-312, 2005.
Xu, H., Deka, R., Kimmel, M., Fu, Y.X. and Chakraborty, R. Signature of natural
selection revealed at HLA region with microsatellites. Tissue Antigens (In Review)
Xu, H., Spitz, M.R., Amos, C.I. and Shete, S. Complex segregation analysis reveals a multigene
model for lung cancer. Human Genetics 116 : 121-127, 2005.
Zhao, J.Y., Xiong, M.M., Huang, W., Wang, H., Zuo, J., Wu, G.D.,Chen, Z., Qiang,
B.Q., Zhang, M.L., Chen, J.L., Ding, W., Yuan, W.T., Xu, H., Jin, L., Li, Y.X.,
Sun, Q., Liu, Q.Y., Boerwinkle, E. and Fang, F.D. An autosomal genomic scan for loci
linked to type 2 diabetes in Northern Han Chinese population. Journal of Molecular
Medicine 83 : 209-215, 2005.
Xu, H., Wu, X., Spitz, M.R. and Shete, S. Comparison of haplotype inference methods
from unrelated population genotype data. Human Heredity 58 : 63-68, 2004.
Cortes-Prieto, L., Baltazar, L., Perea, F., Gallegos-Arreola, M., Flores, S., Sandoval,
L., Olivares1, N., Xu, H., Barton, S., Chakraborty, R., and Rivas, F. HLA-DQB1,
-DQA1, -DRB1 Linkage Disequilibrium Estimate from Segregating Haplotypes in
Mestizo Families from Guadalajara, Mexico. Tissue Antigens 63 : 458-465,
2004.
Xu, H. and Fu, Y.X. Estimating Effective Population Size or Mutation Rate with Microsatellites.
Genetics 166 : 555-563, 2004.
Wu, H., Wang, H., Li, H., Oshuaakey, J., Xiao, F., Ke, Y., Xu, H., Xiao, J., Lu, D.,
Parra, E., Shriver, M., Xiong, M., Barton, S. A., Hewett-Emmett, D., Liu, W., and
Ji, L. Skin reflectance in the Han Chinese and Tibetan populations. Hum Biol 73 :
461-466, 2001.
Hong, W. U., Cai, G., Xu, H., Chen, H., Xiao, J., Lu, D., Xue, J., Qiu, X., and Jin,
L. Single nucleotide polymorphism in beta2-adrenoceptor gene and the distribution
in Chinese Han ethnic group. Zhonghua Yi Xue Yi Chuan Xue Za Zhi 18 : 1-3,
2001.
Xiao, J., Hu, F., Xu, H., Su, B., Jiang, Y., Luo, J., Zhang, W., Tan, J., Jin, L., and
Lu, D. Provincial distribution of three HIV-1 resistant polymorphisms (CCR5-32,
CCR2-64I,and SDF1-3¡-A) in China. Science in China 43 : 16-20, 2000.
Zhao, J., Wang, H., M., X. M., Huang, W., Zuo, J., Chen, Z., Qiang, B., Sun, Q.,
Li, Y., Liu, Q., Du, W., Chen, J., Ding, W., Yuan, W., Zhao, Y., Xu, H., Jin, L.,
and Fang, F. The localization of type 2 diabetes susceptibility gene loci in northern
Chinese Han families. Chinese Science Bulletin 45 : 1792-1795, 2000.
Yuan, W., Xu, H., Zhao, J., Ding, W., Jiang, H., Gu, M., Xue, J., Chen, J., Fang,
F., Chen, Z., Jin, L., and Huang, W. Information behavior of microsatellite loci in
genome scanning. Zhonghua Yi Xue Yi Chuan Xue Za Zhi 17 : 65-71, 2000.
Luo, J., Ji, Y., Peng, Y., Xiao, J., Yao, Y., Xu, H., Yang, M., Zhen, J., Lu, D.,
and Jin, L. Linkage analysis of chromosome 5 and asthma in a Chinese population.
Zhonghua Yi Xue Yi Chuan Xue Za Zhi 16 : 318-320, 1999.
Zhang, W., Hu, F., Xiao, J., Xu, H., Lu, D. R., and Jin, L. The Distribution of a
3¡A polymorphism of SDF-1 gene in a Chinese random population. Journal of Fudan
Univeristy (Natural Science) 37 : 317-318, 1998.
Bao, Y., Lu, D., Shi, Q., Xu, H., Qiu, X., and Xue, J.
Determination of the polymorphism of DXS102 locus and its application in gene
diagnosis. Zhonghua Yi Xue
Yi Chuan Xue Za Zhi 15 : 27-30, 1998.
Bao, Y., Lu, D., Xu, H., Shi, Q., Qiu, X., and Xue, J. Polymorphism of DXS102
locus in Chinese population and its application to gene diagnosis in hemophilia B
family. Chin Med J (Engl) 111 : 227-230, 1998.
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