Dr Xiaoting Li
Xiaoting Li is a computational biologist and research associate working at the interface of genomics, bioinformatics, and human disease. Her research focuses on developing statistical and machine-learning methods to analyze large-scale multi-omics and genetics data and uncover the molecular mechanisms underlying complex diseases.
She received her B.Sc. from Tsinghua University (China) and completed her Ph.D. at Columbia University (U.S.). Her work has contributed to understanding how genetic variants influence transcription factor activity and cellular regulatory networks across human tissues. She has developed computational approaches to study gene regulation, identify disease-associated molecular mechanisms, and discover biomarkers for neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease. Her work also addresses challenges in genomic privacy and the responsible use of artificial intelligence in biomedical research.
At Cambridge, she aims to develop AI models that integrate electronic health records, molecular profiles, and genetic data to improve patient stratification and therapeutic discovery for complex diseases. As an Affiliated Postdoctoral Member of Clare Hall, she looks forward to engaging with scholars across disciplines on the opportunities and challenges of AI in healthcare.
Select publications
- Li, X., Lappalainen, T., & Bussemaker, H. J. (2023). Identifying genetic regulatory variants that affect transcription factor activity. Cell Genomics, 3(9), 100382.
- Li, X.*, Melo, L. A.*, & Bussemaker, H. J. (2024). Benchmarking and building DNA binding affinity models using allele-specific and allele-agnostic transcription factor binding data. Genome Biology, 25(1), 284.
- Walker, C. R., Li, X., Chakravarthy, M., Lounsbery-Scaife, W., Choi, Y. A., Singh, R., & Gürsoy, G. (2024). Private information leakage from single-cell count matrices. Cell, 187(23), 6537-6549.
- Brown, B. R. P.*, Li, X.*, Grasty, M.R. Lopez, I. R., Dzigurski, S., Geradi, M. N., Weed, M. R., Elsworth, J. D., Lawrence, M., Gürsoy, G. & Miranker, A. D. (2025). African green monkeys respond to synthetic Aβ Oligomers with persistent Alzheimer’s-like activation. bioRxiv, 2025.10.08.678256 (Under review)
