Xiaobo Zhou PhD

Dr. Zhou is a principal investigator leading the Functional Genomics program in respiratory diseases at BWH/HMS, aiming to translate human GWAS discoveries to lung biology by multi-pronged approaches. Her group has pioneered functional variants identification in COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases) and asthma by interrogating chromatin structure and modification. Two major areas of research interest in her group include assigning causal genes to non-coding GWAS loci and developing in vitro and in vivo models to screen function of GWAS genes associated with COPD and asthma.

Her recent work has also applied single cell RNA sequencing and genome-editing methods to determine roles of the GWAS genes in regulating inflammation and cellular signaling pathways. Before Dr. Zhou established Functional Genomics Laboratory in BWH, she obtained her Ph.D in Chinese Academy of Medical Science in Beijing and finished her post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School. She currently has four NIH funded projects as the Principal Investigator or Director and another four collaborative projects as the co-Investigator.