Yu Xia

Yu (Brandon) Xia works in the area of computational biology, with a particular focus on computational structural and systems biology.  He develops computer models of complex biomolecular systems and uses such models to elucidate the relationship among their sequence, structure, function, and evolution. Professor Xia holds joint appointments in the Department of Chemistry and the Bioinformatics Graduate Program, as well as a secondary appointment in the Department of Biomedical Engineering.  He is affiliated with the Center for Advanced Genomic Technology, and the Molecular Biology, Cell Biology & Biochemistry Program.

Degrees and Positions

• B.S. in Chemistry, Minor in Computer Science, Peking University, 1995
• Ph.D. in Chemistry / Computational Structural Biology, Stanford University, 2003
• Postdoctoral Fellow in Protein Bioinformatics, Yale University, 2003-2006

Honors

• Fellowship of the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research, 2004-2006
• Howard Hughes Medical Institute Predoctoral Fellowship in Biological Sciences, 1996-2001
• Baosteel Scholarship, 1993
• Gold Medal, International Chemistry Olympiad, 1990

Research

Recent publications from the Xia Laboratory developed new methods to model protein structures and protein networks.

Research in the Xia Laboratory focuses on computational structural and systems biology.  They develop computational methods to model complex biomolecular systems such as proteins and protein networks.  Their goal is to understand the relationship among sequence, structure, function, and evolution at the level of proteins and protein networks.  The tools they use include informatics, modeling, and simulation.  Their research combines prediction and analysis in modeling proteins and protein networks.

• Computational Structural Biology focuses on computer modeling and analysis of protein structures.  Ongoing projects in the laboratory include: prediction of protein three-dimensional structure and function, modeling protein sequence-structure-function relationships, comparative and evolutionary analysis of proteins.
  

  Xia Lab Image

• Computational Systems Biology focuses on computer modeling and analysis of protein networks.  Ongoing projects in the laboratory include: reconstruction of protein-protein interaction and regulatory networks by genomic data integration, modeling dynamics and evolution of protein-protein interaction and regulatory networks, comparative and evolutionary analysis of protein networks.

Techniques & Resources

• Bioinformatics Program at Boston University is an interdisciplinary graduate program focusing on bioinformatics and computational biology.
• Systems & Integrative Biology is an emerging scientific field with significant research activity at Boston University.
• Center for Advanced Genomic Technology provides computational resources for bioinformatics and systems biology applications.
• Scientific Computing and Visualization (SCV) and Center for Computational Science (CCS) provide computational resources for simulation and modeling of biomolecular systems.

Opportunities

Members of the Xia Laboratory interact closely with other students and faculty interested in computational biosciences.  In addition, students enjoy the opportunity to apply their computational expertise to key biological problems in collaboration with leading experimental labs.

What’s Next for Graduates of the Xia Group?

Alumni of the Xia Laboratory have been highly successful in pursuing academic and industrial careers in bioinformatics, computational biology, and computational chemistry.  The current positions of the Xia Laboratory alumni can be found here.

Assistant Professor
LSE 911
Phone: 617.358.2302
Fax: 617.353.4814
yuxia@bu.edu
Office Hours: by Appointment
Xia Group Home Page