Professor Yiji Xia obtained his PhD in Genetics in 1997 from Iowa State University. He was a Principal Investigator at Danforth Plant Science Center (St. Louis, USA) from 2001-2009 before joining HKBU. Professor Xia obtained research grants from National Institute of Health, National Science Foundation, and Environmental Protection Agency while working in USA. Since joining HKBU in 2009, Professor Xia has obtained 15 grants from Research Grants Council of Hong Kong to support his research, including 12 GRF projects, two Collaborative Research grants (CRF-group), and a NSFC/RGC Collaborative Research Scheme grant, securing a cumulative sum of more than HK$30 million. Professor Xia has published over 60 research articles in Nature, PNAS, Nature Protocols, Nature Communications, Plant Cell, EMBO Journal, Nucleic Acids Research, and other journals, earning a citation count of over 8,500.
Currently, Prof. Xia’s research is focused on understanding molecular mechanisms of RNA capping and its role in regulating gene expression. In recent years, RNA capping has increasingly been recognized as a key regulatory mechanism in dynamic gene regulation to mediate important biological processes. In addition to the canonical m7G cap, other non-canonical caps such as the NAD cap have also been found in many RNAs in both eukaryotic and prokaryotic organisms. However, the mechanism of NAD capping and its molecular and physiological functions remain largely unknown. Xia laboratory has developed new methods for global-scale identification and characterization of NAD-capped RNAs and is using molecular biology, genetics, biochemical, and functional genomics approaches to reveal the mechanisms of gene regulation by RNA capping in Arabidopsis, E. coli, yeast, and human cells.
