XIAOLI “ALEX” XIONG--Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Study/Work Experience

Start - End Year Institution Position

2020 – Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences Principal Investigator

2018 – 2020 MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (UK) Postdoctoral scientist

2016 – 2018 University of Washington (USA) Senior Fellow

2011 – 2016 The Francis Crick Institute (UK) Career Development Fellow

Start - End Year Institution Major Degree

2007 – 2011 University of Bristol (UK) Pathology and Microbiology Doctor of Philosophy

2004 – 2007 University of Bristol (UK) Biochemistry Bachelor of Science

Research Areas

Xiaoli “Alex” Xiong is a principal investigator at the Center for Infection and Immunity in the Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a principal investigator at the State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Diseases. He is awardees of a National Overseas High-Level Talent Recruitment Program and the Pearl River Talent Program of Guangdong. Dr Xiong primarily uses biochemistry and structural biology techniques to study pathogenesis mechanisms of viruses and bacteria.

Dr Xiong has studied the assembly mechanism of influenza virus by elucidating the full-length structure of the influenza virus M1 protein. He has also studied structural features of complexes formed between hemagglutinins and receptors of various influenza viruses such as H5N1, H7N9, H10N8, and H3N2. These researches inform the mechanisms through which receptor binding changes contribute to cross-species transmission of multiple influenza viruses.

Since 2016, he has conducted researches on spike (S) proteins of various coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2 and porcine deltacoronavirus. These researches inform coronavirus invasion and immune recognition mechanisms. He has published over 30 articles in influential journals such as Nature, Cell, Nature Microbiology, Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, PNAS, and NAR. His researches have been cited over 4000 times.

Academic Performance

Representative Papers

First authors:#；Corresponding authors:*

1. He, P.#, Liu, B.#, Gao, X.#, Yan, Q.#, Pei, R.#, Sun, J., Chen, Q., Hou, R., Li, Z., Zhang, Y., Zhao, J., Sun, H., Feng, B., Wang, Q., Yi, H., Hu, P., Li, P., Zhang, Y., Chen, Z., Niu, X., Zhong, X., Jin, L., Liu, X., Qu, K., Ciazynska, K.A., Carter, A.P., Briggs, J.A.G., Chen, J., Liu, J., Chen, X.*, He, J.*, Chen, L.*, Xiong, X.* (2022) SARS-CoV-2 Delta and Omicron variants evade population antibody response by mutations in a single spike epitope. Nature Microbiology 7: 1635-1649

2. Peukes, J.#, Xiong, X.#*, Erlendsson, S., Qu, K., Wan, W., Calder, L.J., Schraidt, O., Kummer, S., Freund, S.M.V., Krausslich, H.G., Briggs, J.A.G.* (2020) The native structure of the assembled matrix protein 1 of influenza A virus. Nature 587: 495-498

3. Walls, A.C.#, Xiong, X.#, Park, Y.J., Tortorici, M.A., Snijder, J., Quispe, J., Cameroni, E., Gopal, R., Dai, M., Lanzavecchia, A., Zambon, M., Rey, F.A., Corti, D., Veesler, D. (2019) Unexpected Receptor Functional Mimicry Elucidates Activation of Coronavirus Fusion. Cell 176: 1026-1039.e1015

4. Xiong, X.#, Coombs, P.J.#, Martin, S.R.#, Liu, J., Xiao, H., McCauley, J.W., Locher, K., Walker, P.A., Collins, P.J., Kawaoka, Y., Skehel, J.J., Gamblin, S.J. (2013a) Receptor binding by a ferret-transmissible H5 avian influenza virus. Nature 497: 392-396

5. Xiong, X., Martin, S.R., Haire, L.F., Wharton, S.A., Daniels, R.S., Bennett, M.S., McCauley, J.W., Collins, P.J., Walker, P.A., Skehel, J.J., Gamblin, S.J. (2013) Receptor binding by an H7N9 influenza virus from humans. Nature 499: 496-499