Yi Xing, PhD, Named Executive Director of DBHi

Yi Xing, PhD, has been named as the next Executive Director of the Department of Biomedical and Health Informatics (DBHi). Dr. Xing is the founder and director of CHOP’s Center for Computational and Genomic Medicine and Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds the Francis West Lewis Chair in Computational and Genomic Medicine at CHOP.

Dr. Xing’s groundbreaking research fits well with DBHi’s mission by merging the fields of computational biology, biomedical data science, RNA genomics, human genetics, precision medicine, and immuno-oncology. He is one of the premier investigators in this space, playing a pivotal role in developing new genomic technologies and computational methods, and leading collaborative studies aimed at understanding how the human genome and its gene products contribute to development and disease. He has an extensive publication record in bioinformatics, genomics, and RNA biology and is recognized internationally for his expertise in the fields of computational and experimental RNA biology.

Prior to joining CHOP and Penn in 2018, Dr. Xing was Professor of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics at UCLA, where he served as program director of UCLA’s Bioinformatics Interdepartmental PhD Program. He received his BS in Molecular and Cellular Biology and BE in Computer Science and Technology from the University of Science and Technology of China, completed his doctorate in Bioinformatics at UCLA, and accomplished his postdoctoral training in Statistics and Developmental Biology at Stanford University.

He has served as a regular member on prestigious National Institutes of Health review panels, including the NIH Genomics, Computational Biology and Technology (GCAT) study section and is currently a member of the Final-round Editorial Review Panel of the NIH Director’s New Innovator Awards.

A senior faculty-led search committee, DBHi staff and faculty, and various leaders of other departments interviewed five outstanding candidates to identify Dr. Xing.

Chief Scientific Officer Bryan Wolf, MD, PhD, who currently serves as Chair of DBHi, is retiring and will be with the Research Institute through the end of June.