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Professor Xiaoliang Sunney Xie (Chinese: 谢晓亮; born 1962 in Beijing, China) is considered a founding father of single-molecule biophysical chemistry and single-molecule enzymology. He received his B.Sc. in Chemistry from Peking University in 1984, and his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry in 1990 from University of California at San Diego. After a brief postdoctoral appointment at University of Chicago, he joined Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, where he rose from Senior Research Scientist to Chief Scientist. In 1998, he became the first tenured professor at Harvard University among Chinese Scholars who came to the United States since the Reform in China.
As a pioneer of single-molecule biophysical chemistry, coherent Raman scattering microscopy, and single-cell genomics, he made major contributions to the emergence of these fields. Furthermore, he has made significant advances on medical applications of label-free optical imaging and single-cell genomics. In particular, his inventions in single-cell genomics have been used in in vitro fertilization to benefit hundreds of couples in China by avoiding the transmission of monogenic diseases to their newborns.
Currently, Xie is the Mallinckrodt Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. He is also the Director of Biodynamics Optical Imaging Center (BIOPIC) since 2010, and the Director of Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Genomics (ICG) since 2016, both at Peking University.
As of April 2017, Xie has published over 210 papers. More than forty of his students and post-doctorates have become professors at major universities around the world, and two are co-founders of start-up companies.
Professor Xie’s current research interests include the following scientific, technological, and medical areas:
Scientific: Single-molecule enzymology, Single-molecule biophysical chemistry, Gene expression and regulation, Epigenetics, Mechanism of cell differentiation and reprogramming, Chromosome structure and dynamics, and Genomic instability;
Zong, Chenghang; Lu, Sijia; Chapman, Alec R.; Xie, X. Sunney. "Genome-Wide Detection of Single-Nucleotide and Copy-Number Variations of a Single Human Cell" Science 338, 1622-1626 (2012).
Gene Expression and Regulation
Chong, Shasha; Chen, Chongyi; Ge, Hao; Xie X. Sunney. “Mechanism of Transcriptional Bursting in Bacteria,” Cell 158, 314-326 (2014).
Taniguchi, Yuichi; Choi, Paul J.; Li, Gene-Wei; Chen, Huiyi; Babu, Mohan; Hearn, Jeremy; Emili, Andrew; Xie, X. Sunney. "Quantifying E. coli Proteome and Transcriptome with Single-Molecule Sensitivity in Single Cells," Science 329: 533-538 (2010).
Choi, Paul J.; Cai, Long; Frieda, Kirsten; Xie, X. Sunney. "A Stochastic Single-Molecule Event Triggers Phenotype Switching of a Bacterial Cell," Science 322, 442-446 (2008).
Elf, Johan; Li, Gene-Wei; Xie, X. Sunney. "Probing Transcription Factor Dynamics at the Single-Molecule Level in a Living Cell," Science 316, 1191-1194 (2007).
Yu, Ji; Xiao, Jie; Ren, Xiaojia; Lao, Kaiqin; Xie, X. Sunney. "Probing Gene Expression in Live Cells, One Protein Molecule at a Time," Science 311, 1600-1603 (2006).
Cai, Long; Friedman, Nir; Xie, X. Sunney. "Stochastic Protein Expression in Individual Cells at the Single Molecule Level," Nature 440, 358-362 (2006).
Single Molecule Enzymology
Chong, Shasha; Chen, Chongyi; Ge, Hao; Xie X. Sunney. “Mechanism of Transcriptional Bursting in Bacteria,” Cell 158, 314-326 (2014).
Ji, Minbiao; Orringer, Daniel A.; Freudiger, Christian W.; Ramkissoon, Shakti; Liu, Xiaohui; Lau, Darryl; Golby, Alexandra J.; Norton, Isaiah; Hayashi, Marika; Agar, Nathalie Y. R.; Young, Geoffrey S.; Spino, Cathie; Santagata, Sandro; Camelo-Piragua, Sandra; Ligon, Keith L.; Sagher, Oren; Xie, X. Sunney. "Rapid, Label-Free Detection of Brain Tumors with Stimulated Raman Scattering Microscopy," Science Translational Medicine 5, 201ra119 (2013).
Wang, Meng C.; Min, Wei; Freudiger, Christian W.; Ruvkun, Gary; Xie, X. Sunney. "RNAi Screening for Fat Regulatory Genes with SRS Microscopy," Nat Methods 8, 135-138 (2011).
Saar, Brian G.; Freudiger, Christian W.; Reichman, Jay; Stanley, C. Michael; Holtom, Gary R.; Xie, X. Sunney. "Video-Rate Molecular Imaging in Vivo with Stimulated Raman Scattering," Science 330, 1368-1370 (2010).
Freudiger, Christian W.; Min, Wei; Saar, Brian G.; Lu, Sijia; Holtom, Gary R.; He, Chengwei; Tsai, Jason C.; Kang, Jing X.; Xie, X. Sunney. "Label-Free Biomedical Imaging with High sensitivity by Stimulated Raman Scattering Microscopy," Science 322, 1857-1860 (2008).
Evans, Conor L.; Potma, Eric O.; Puoris'haag, Mehron; Côté, Daniel; Lin, Charles P.; Xie, X. Sunney. "Chemical imaging of tissue in vivo with video-rate coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy" Proc Nat. Aca Sci 102, 16807-16812 (2005
Zumbusch, Andreas; Holtom, Gary R.; Xie, X. Sunney. "Vibrational Microscopy Using Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Scattering," Phys Rev Lett 82, 4142-4145 (1999).
Single Molecule Imaging
Zhou, Yuexin; Wang, Ping ; Tian, Feng; Gao, Ge; Huang, Lei; Wei, Wensheng; Xie, X. Sunney. "Painting a specific chromosome with CRISPR/Cas9 for live-cell imaging," Cell Res doi:10.1038/cr.2017.9 (2017).
Chong, Shasha; Min, Wei; Xie, X. Sunney. "Ground-State Depletion Microscopy:Detection Sensitivity of Single-Molecule Optical Absorption at Room Temperature,"J Phys Chem Lett 1, 3316-3322 (2010).
Min, Wei; Lu, Sijia; Chong, Shasha; Roy, Rahul; Holtom, Gary R.; Xie, X. Sunney. "Imaging Chromophores with Undetectable Fluorescence by Stimulated Emission Microscopy," Nature 461, 1105-1109 (2009).
Sánchez, Erik J.; Novotny, Lukas; Xie, X. Sunney. "Near-field Fluorescence Microscopy Based on Two-photon Excitation with Metal Tips," Phys Rev Lett 82, 4014-4017 (1999).
Sánchez, Erik J.; Novotny, Lukas; Holtom, G.R.; Xie, X. Sunney. "Room-Temperature Fluorescence Imaging and Spectroscopy of Single Molecules by Two-Photon Excitation," J Phys Chem A 101, 7019-7023 (1997).
Xie, X. Sunney; Dunn, Robert C. "Probing Single Molecule Dynamics," Science 265, 361-364 (1994).
