Jianli Dong is a Professor and Director of the Molecular
Diagnostics Division, Department of Pathology, The University of Texas Medical
Branch at Galveston. She received an MD from Southern Medical University in
1985 and completed residency at Beijing Institute of Infectious Diseases in
1987. She also obtained an MSc in Molecular Biology in 1992 and a PhD in Genetics
from the University of Toronto in 1998. She served as a Research Fellow in
Human Genetics at Yale University School of Medicine and as a Clinical Fellow
in Clinical Molecular Genetics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 2001. She
is a fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) and a member of the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP). She is most interested in research, development,
and validation studies of laboratory genetics and genomics assays to
improve the diagnosis and management of human diseases. She is also interested
in BRAF-MEK-ERK and p16-CDK4/6-RB pathways in cancer biology and as therapeutic
targets in melanoma and other cancers.
Xiaoyong Bao is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the
Division of Clinic and Experimental Immunology and Infectious Disease. She
received her PhD in Cellular Physiology and Molecular Biophysics from the
University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. She continued her education as
a J.Kempner Scholar for the year 2003–2004 and completed her postdoctoral
fellowship in an NIAID-supported T32 training program for emerging and
re-emerging infections in UTMB. One of her research interests focuses on the
biological roles of small non-coding RNAs (sncRNAs), especially the newly
discovered sncRNA derived from tRNA, in response to viral infection and
environmental stimuli. The ultimate goal of her sncRNA research is to control
viral replication or stress-induced cellular responses by regulating the
expression of sncRNAs. Her other research interests include identifying the
mechanisms associated with immune evasion of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)
and human metapneumovirus (hMPV), the two leading causes of lower respiratory
tract infection in children, and developing therapeutic molecules and
attenuated vaccine candidates to combat or prevent these two viral infections.
