Huichun Xu, MD, PhD

Lab Head

Huichun Xu, University of Maryland School of Medicine

Pronouns: he/him

Dr. Xu is a genetic epidemiologist with a focus on common human complex diseases, particularly cerebrovascular diseases and their risk factors, using both genomics and functional genomics technologies. Dr. Xu earned his M.D. in Internal Medicine from a prestigious seven-year program at the Hunan Medical University. He completed his Ph.D. training at the University of California at Davis. During his PhD and postdoctoral training, Dr. Xu has been primarily conducting translational research in neurological diseases based on genomic technology. Representative projects included: (1) establishing transcriptome biomarkers for etiology diagnosis in human ischemic stroke patients and (2) identifying potential protective therapy target for human neurological injury in animal model using functional genomics. Currently, Dr. Xu involves in genetic study of ischemic stroke through Stroke Genetics Network (SiGN) study under International Stroke Genetics Consortium, genetic study of MRI imaging traits in stroke patients such as white matter hyperintensities and acute infarct size through MRI-GEnetics Interface Exploration (MRI-GENIE) study, and genetics of young onset ischemic stroke study. Besides DNA level genetic study, Dr. Xu has been heavily involved in functional epigenomics study of stroke recovery at the level of DNA methylome and transcriptome.