Faculty

Xiaoling Xuei, MS, PhD

Senior Research Professor of Medical & Molecular Genetics

Phone (317) 278-5201

Address

MEDICAL&MOLECULAR GENETICS
Walther Hall, Room R3-C418

Indianapolis, IN 46202

Bio

Xiaoling (aka Ling) was born in Shanghai and grew up in Beijing, China. She came to US in 1983 after obtaining her Bachelor of Science degree in Northwest Agriculture University in China. Her first stop in the US was the University of Kentucky. After her MS degree, she wanted to explore the new frontier of molecular biology, so went to study at Cornell University in upstate New York for her Ph.D. in Plant Pathology with focus on fungal molecular biology and genetics. After her postdoctoral fellowship in fungal molecular genetics in the Infectious Diseases at Eli Lilly and Company, she worked as a biochemist, and later as a senior biochemist, in initial drug discovery in the PPR&D at Abbott Labs from 1994 to 2001. She returned to academics in 2002 to join the faculty of Indiana University School of Medicine as an associate research professor, then full research professor. Her area of interest includes human genetics and genomics, specifically applying genomics technologies of SNP genotyping, microarray and next-gen sequencing to the area of genetics of alcoholism and other common complex disorders.

Key Publications

1. Edenberg, H.J, Dick, D.M, Xuei, X, Tian, H, Almasy, L, Bauer, L.O, Crowe, R.R, Goate, A, Hesselbrock, V, Jones, K, Kwon, J, Li, T-K, Nurnberger, J.I. Jr., O’Connor, S.J, Reich, T, Rice, J, Schuckit, M.A, Porjesz, B, Foroud, T. & Begleiter, H. (2004). Variations in GABRA2, encoding the alpha subunit of the GABA_A receptor, are associated with alcohol dependence and with brain oscillations. American Journal of Human Genetics, 74,705-714. PMID: 15024690

2. Xuei, X, Dick, D, Flury-Wetherill, L, Tian, H-J, Agrawal, A, Bierut, L, Goate, A, Bucholz, K, Schuckit, M, Nurnberger, J. Jr., Tischfield, J, Kuperman, S, Porjesz, B, Begleiter, H, Foroud, T. & Edenberg, H.J. (2006). Association of the κ-opioid system with alcohol dependence. Mol Psychiatry, 11,1016-1024. PMID: 16924269

3. Xiaoling Xuei, Leah Flury-Wetherill, Laura Bierut, Danielle Dick, John Nurnberger Jr, Tatiana Foroud, and Howard J Edenberg. The opioid system in alcohol and drug dependence: family-based association study. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics) 2007; 144, 877-884. PMID: 17503481.

4. Wang, JC, Foroud, T, Hinrichs, AL, Le, NX, Bertelsen, S, Budde, JP, Harari, O, Koller, DL, Wetherill, L, Agrawal, A, Almasy, L, Brooks, AI, Bucholz, K, Dick, D, Hesselbrock, V, Johnson, EO, Kang, S, Kapoor, M, Kramer, J, Kuperman, S, Madden, PA, Manz, N, Martin, NG, McClintick, JN, Montgomery, GW, Nurnberger, JI Jr, Rangaswamy, M, Rice, J, Schuckit, M, Tischfield, JA, Whitfield, JB, Xuei, X, Porjesz, B, Heath, AC, Edenberg, HJ, Bierut, LJ, Goate, AM. (2013) A genome-wide association study of alcohol-dependence symptom counts in extended pedigrees identifies C15orf53. Mol Psychiatry, 18(11),1218-1224. PMID: 23089632

5. Wetherill, L, Kapoor, M, Agrawal, A, Bucholz, K, Koller, D, Bertelsen, SE, Le, N, Wang, JC, Almasy, L, Hesselbrock, V, Kramer, J, Nurnberger, JI Jr, Schuckit, M, Tischfield, JA, Xuei, X, Porjesz, B, Edenberg, HJ, Goate, AM, Foroud, T. (2014). Family-Based Association Analysis of Alcohol Dependence Criteria and Severity. Alcohol Clin Exp Res, 38(2),354-66. PMID: 24015780

6. McClintick, J.N., McBride, W.J., Bell, R.L., Ding, Z-M., Liu, Y., Xuei, X., and Edenberg, H.J. (2016). Gene expression changes in glutamate and GABA-A receptors, neuropeptides, ion channels and cholesterol synthesis in the periaqueductal gray following binge-like alcohol drinking by adolescent alcohol-preferring (P) rats. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. 2016 Apr 8. doi: 10.1111/acer.13056. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 27061086

7. Lo, C-L., Lossie, A.C., Liang, T., Liu, Y., Xuei, X., Lumeng, L., Zhou, F., and Muir, W.M. (2016). High Resolution genomic scans reveal genetic architecture controlling alcohol preference in bidirectionally selected rat model. PLOS Genetics. 2016 Aug 4. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1006178. PMID: 27490364

8. Hao, Y., Xuei, X., Li, L., Nakshatri, H., Edenberg, H.J., and Liu, Y. (2017). RareVar: A framework for detecting low frequency single nucleotide variants. Journal of Computational Biology. 2017 Apr. 24:637-646. DOI: 10.1089/cmb.2017.0057.

Titles & Appointments

Senior Research Professor of Medical & Molecular Genetics
Adjunct Senior Research Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Education

1991 PhD Cornell University

1985 MS University of Kentucky

1982 BS Northwest College of Agriculture
Research

Ling's main function is as technical director in the Center for Medical Genomics at IUSM. The Center for Medical Genomics is a multi-functional genomics center facilitated with Illumina HiSeq 4000, Illumina NextSeq 500, Life Technologies Ion Proton Sequencer, Sequenom MassARRAY, and Affymetrix GeneChip Array for Next-Gen sequencing, SNP genotyping, allele-specific expression, targeted methylation, and gene expression microarray. The center serves as the core for genomics research on campus as well as off campus.

In addition, Ling has been involved in the multi-institutional collaborative studies on genetics of alcoholism (COGA) for more than 15 years. The major research focus of COGA involves searching for genes responsible for alcoholism using family-based strategy, and studying the potential functions of the genes discovered through genetic analysis.
Professional Organizations

American Association for the Advancement of Science

American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG)

Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities (ABRF)

Research Society on Alcoholism

Research Labs

Faculty research at IU School of Medicine is transforming health. Details about the medical research being conducted in faculty labs throughout IU School of Medicine are available in the Research section of this site.

Faculty Labs