Zhixiu received her PhD in Bioinformatics from Indiana University in 2015, where she focused on developing novel computational methods for protein design and predicting the impact of human genetic variations. She then relocated to Australia to work alongside Professor Matthew Brown on research into ankylosing spondylitis at UQ and QUT. During the period, she developed and validated AS polygenic risk scores, which have high diagnostic capacity in AS and performed better than CRP, sacroiliac MRI, or HLA-B27 status alone.
Currently, she holds the position of Associate Professor at Southern University of Science and Technology. Her research group is primarily aimed at pinpointing the genetic susceptibility loci for immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, with the ultimate goal of achieving early precision diagnosis and targeted treatment for these conditions.
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