Xinnian Dong (; born 1959) is a Chinese-American biologist who is the current Arts and Sciences Professor of Biology in the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences,

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

, United States. She is a member of the US

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

Biography

Dong was born in

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei, Hubei Province in the China, People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the List of cities in China ...

Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The prov ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

in 1959, to Dong Fureng (), a Chinese-American economist, and Liu Ainian (), a Chinese-American

ophthalmologist Ophthalmology ( ) is a surgery, surgical subspecialty within medicine that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of eye disorders. An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Followin ...

. After resuming the college entrance examination, Dong was accepted to

Wuhan University Wuhan University (WHU; ) is a public research university in Wuhan, Hubei. The university is sponsored by the Ministry of Education. Wuhan university was founded as one of the four elite universities in the early republican period of China and i ...

, where she graduated in 1982. After college, she attended the China-United States Biochemistry Examination and Application (CUSBEA) and was sent abroad to study at the expense of the Chinese government, along with her husband, Xiao-Fan Wang. In 1983, she pursued advanced studies in the United States, earning her doctorate from

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

in 1988. Dong did post-doctoral research at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

from 1988 to 1991. Dong joined the faculty of

in 1992 and established the Dong Lab. Since 1992, Dr. Dong and the Dong Lab has studied plant-microbe interactions with an emphasis on systemic acquired resistance (SAR) The Lab's early work involved the identification of key components in SAR, including NPR₁. More recently, the Lab made discoveries which provided new insights into the relationship between pathogen-induced cellular

redox Redox (reduction–oxidation, , ) is a type of chemical reaction in which the oxidation states of substrate (chemistry), substrate change. Oxidation is the loss of Electron, electrons or an increase in the oxidation state, while reduction ...

changes and induced immune responses in plants and the role of ER-resident

gene In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a ba ...

s in the modification and secretion of antimicrobial proteins. Most recently, the Lab has conducted genomic studies, leading to the discovery of new components in R gene-mediated resistance against downy mildew (''Hyaloperonospora parasitica)''. They also currently investigate links between

chromatin Chromatin is a complex of DNA and protein found in eukaryotic cells. The primary function is to package long DNA molecules into more compact, denser structures. This prevents the strands from becoming tangled and also plays important roles in r ...

stability and plant defense.

Personal life

She became a naturalized US citizen in 1998. Dong was married to Xiao-Fan Wang, a Chinese American oncologist.

Awards and honors

* 2011, Member,

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

(AAAS) * 2012, elected an academician of the

* 2014 & 2015, Selected as one of the most influential scientific minds

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dong, Xinnian 1959 births People from Wuhan Living people Wuhan University alumni Northwestern University alumni Harvard University alumni Duke University faculty American women biologists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Chinese emigrants to the United States Chinese women biologists 20th-century American biologists 21st-century American scientists Biologists from Hubei Educators from Hubei Fellows of the American Academy of Microbiology 20th-century American women American women academics 21st-century American women