Rate My Professor Dong Xia

Dr Dong Xia is a Senior Lecturer in Bioinformatics in the Department of Pathobiology and Population Sciences at the Royal Veterinary College, University of London. He earned a BSc in Biological Science from Shandong University, China, an MSc by research from the University of Edinburgh, and a PhD in Infection Biology from the University of Liverpool, focusing on the proteomics of Toxoplasma gondii. He also holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Veterinary Education (PGCVetEd) and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). After his PhD, Dr Xia led bioinformatics and wet-lab projects at the University of Liverpool, developing tools for mass spectrometry data analysis and genome annotation. In 2017, he was appointed to a lectureship at the Royal Veterinary College, where he progressed to Senior Lecturer, leading the Quantitative Biology Group.

Dr Xia's research integrates multi-omics datasets with phenotypic and clinical measurements for systems modeling to improve animal health and welfare, particularly through drug and vaccine development and characterizing veterinary disease pathologies. His work emphasizes molecular mechanisms of host-pathogen interactions using high-resolution proteomics and bioinformatics approaches, including proteoform characterization and functional validations contributing to genome annotations. He contributes to research groups on Antimicrobial Resistance and Host-Pathogen Interactions and Vaccinology, and projects such as machine learning for predicting tuberculosis drug resistance, multi-omics analysis of bovine foot lesions, and Eimeria infection impacts on chickens. Key publications include 'Cervicovaginal microbiome dysbiosis is associated with proteome changes related to alterations of the cervicovaginal mucosal barrier' (2016), 'The genomic basis of parasitism in the Strongyloides clade of nematodes' (2016), 'Transcriptomic signatures differentiate survival from fatal outcomes in humans infected with Ebola virus' (2017), 'Phenotypic characterisation of regulatory T cells in dogs reveals signature transcripts conserved in humans and mice' (2019), and 'Multi-omics analysis reveals regime shifts in the gastrointestinal ecosystem in chickens following anticoccidial vaccination and Eimeria tenella challenge' (2024). Dr Xia has been awarded grants from the Houghton Trust and participates in international pump-prime funding for cattle vaccine research.