2013年毕业于西安交通大学法医学专业（硕博连读），曾作为交换生在台湾阳明大学/台北荣民总医院研修近半年，随后在南京医科大学短期工作。自2016年11月起赴美，先后在University of North Texas Health Science Center、Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science及University of Chicago/NorthShore University HealthSystem担任博士后研究员与临床研究员8年余。2025年7月，以高层次人才加盟南方医科大学法医学院。研究成果发表于Nature、Molecular Neurodegeneration、Brain、Cell Reports等期刊，授权美国专利1项，多项成果被海外媒体报道，并多次受邀在国际会议上担任Speaker，主持完成多项国家及省级科研项目，担任Neuron、Biological Psychiatry及Journal of Neurochemistry等杂志审稿人。

利用iPSC（诱导多能干细胞）结合CRISPR基因编辑等前沿技术，解析HIV脑病、阿尔茨海默病、毒品成瘾、抑郁症以及精神分裂症等神经退行性疾病与精神疾病的发病机制，并致力于开发新型干预与治疗策略。

     代表性成果：

1.      Zhao, X, Li, Y., Zhang, S., Sudwarts, A., Zhang, H., Kozlova, A., Moulton, M.J., Goodman, L.D., Pang, Z.P., Sanders, A.R. and Bellen, H.J., 2025. Alzheimer’s disease protective allele of Clusterin modulates neuronal excitability through lipid-droplet-mediated neuron-glia communication. Molecular neurodegeneration, 2025, 20(1), p.

2.      Zhao X, Wilson K, Uteshev V, He JJ. Activation of α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor ameliorates HIV-associated neurology and neuropathology. Brain. 2021,144 (11): 3355-3370.

3.      Zhao, X(#), Zhang, F(#), Kandel, S.R, Brau, F, and He, J.J. HIV Tat and cocaine interactively alter genome-wide DNA methylation and gene expression and exacerbate learning and memory impairments. Cell Reports, 2022, 39(5).

4.      Alena Kozlova, Siwei Zhang, Ari Sudwarts, Hanwen Zhang, Stanislau Smirnou, Seul Kee Byeon, Christina Thapa, Xiaotong Sun, Kimberley Stephenson, Xiaojie Zhao, Brendan Jamison, Moorthi Ponnusamy, Xin He, Julie A. Schneider, Akhilesh Pandey, David A. Bennett, Zhiping P. Pang, Alan R. Sanders, Hugo J. Bellen, Gopal Thinakaran & Jubao Duan. Alzheimer's disease risk allele of PICALM causes detrimental lipid droplets in microglia. Nature, 2025, 646(8087), 1178-1186.

5.      Zhao X, Fan Y, Vann PH, Wong JM, Sumien N, He JJ. Long-term HIV-1 Tat Expression in the Brain Led to Neurobehavioral, Pathological, and Epigenetic Changes Reminiscent of Accelerated Aging. Aging and disease. 2020;11(1):93-107.

6.      Methods of treating HIV-associated neurological disorders (HAND)（US Patent: 11,786,507, Publication date 2023/10/17）发明人：Johnny He, Xiaojie Zhao，

     所有论文（Google Scholar）

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