Rong Xu, PhD

Dr Xu is a leader and innovator, conducting cutting edge research in the field of Biomedical Informatics. Dr. Xu earned her BS degree in Biology from Peking University, M.S degree in Biology from Case Western Reserve University, M.S in Computer Science and Ph.D. in Biomedical Informatics from Stanford University. Dr. Xuís research seeks both to reveal the mechanisms that underlie human diseases and discover new drug treatments to combat them. Dr. Xu develops natural language processing (NLP), artificial intelligence, machine learning, data mining, statistical learning, systems biology, and other advanced computational techniques that can create, integrate, and analyze large amounts of heterogeneous and complex biological and health data. Her research interests in biomedical sciences include: drug discovery, disease gene discovery, human gut microbiome, drug toxicity prediction, pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics, and post-market drug safety surveillance. As evidence of her creativity and innovation, Dr Xu has recently received national recognition with three important awards: (1) The NIH Directorís New Innovator Award (2014), (2) The Landon-AACR Innovator Award for Cancer Prevention Research (2015), and (3) The American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) New Investigator Award (2016). Dr.Xu was featured on 2016 Crainís Cleveland Business ìWho to Watch Health Careî, which highlights innovators in Northeast Ohioís medical fields. From 2014-present, Dr. Xu serves as the PI on a total of 11 federal and industrial grants, including NIH Directorís New Innovator Award Program (DP2) grant (1DP2HD084068-01, 2014-2019), National Institute of Aging (R01 AG057557-01, 2017-2022), National Institute of Aging (R01 AG061388-01, 2018-2023), National Institute of Aging (1 R56 AG062272-01, 2018-2021), American Cancer Society Research Scholar Grant (RSG-16-049-01 - MPC, 2016-2020), and Pfizer 2015 ASPIRE Rheumatology and Dermatology Research Award (WI206753, 2015-2019).