Biography
Dr. Xiong’s research focuses on structural and biochemical studies of vrirus suppression by host antiviral factors and viral immune evasion. Dr. Xiong also investigates cellular DNA repair pathways.
Research Summary
We strive to understand how host intrinsic antiviral proteins (restriction factors) suppress infections by viruses such as HIV and SARS-CoV-2, and how virus-encoded proteins subvert the host defense. To accomplish these goals, weapply structural biology and biochemical methods to interrogate diverse host-virus interactions, with key findings from our studies being validated in cell-based studies. We have made significant contributions to the field by furnishing structural and mechanistic results for a range of host-viral interaction systems. The results from our studies place us in an ideal position to continue elucidating the structural and biochemical principles of host restriction and viral immune evasion. We anticipate that insights stemming from our work will provide the intellectual basis for the development of new antiviral compounds and strategies. Moreover, the experimental and structural biology methods devised in our research will provide valuable new tools for the elucidation of host-viral interactions in general and of other challenging biological problems as well.