Graduate Student, The Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience
About me
I am a second-year Ph.D. student in the Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where I am advised by Dwight Bergles and Jeremias Sulam in the study of axon-myelin patterning and plasticity. As a Kavli graduate fellow, my work is also supported by the Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute.
I completed my B.Sc. in Physiology with First class honors at McGill University in Montreal, where my honors thesis, which revolved around building a high-throughput drug-screening pipeline, was advised by Jack Antel and published in communications biology.
Outside the lab, I am a casual musician and eager supporter of the performing arts, co-founding a production company, Two Gents of New West, that aims to help young aspiring artists by giving a voice to innovative new stories and projects.
Research interests
In the Bergles lab, my research interests lie at the intersection of myelin biology and deep learning technologies.
In addition to enhancing the speed of communication between neurons in the brain, myelin is a fascinating membranous sheath that forms unique patterns across the cortex and is modified through experience and learning throughout life.
To fully understand how myelin facilitates higher-order cognition, like learning complex motor tasks, I focus on whole-brain viral labeling techniques to visualize global axon-myelin patterns. In parallel, I am working to develop automated structural tracing algorithms to extract the complex intercellular contacts formed by thousands of cells in these massive whole-brain datasets.
video: automated structural tracing of neuron
(green, raw fluorescence – magenta, traced processes)
video: automated structural tracing of oligodendrocyte. Myelin is first traced (magenta), followed by cytosol (yellow).
Education
B.Sc. Physiology, First class honors, McGill University
Selected Publications
- Xu, Y.K.T., Call, C.L., Sulam, J., Bergles, D.E. “Automated in vivoTracking of Cortical Oligodendrocytes.” Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience. (2021).
- Chanoumidou, K, Hernández-Rodríguez, B., Windener, F., [and 18 others, including Xu, Y.K.T.]. “One-Step Reprogramming of Human Fibroblasts into Oligodendrocyte-like Cells by SOX10, OLIG2, and NKX6.2.” Stem Cell Reports (2021).
- Starost, L., Lindner, M., Herold, M., Xu, Y.K.T.,et al. “Extrinsic immune cell-derived, but not intrinsic oligodendroglial factors contribute to oligodendroglial differentiation block in multiple sclerosis.” Acta Neuropathologica. (2020).
- Mozafari, S., Starost, L., Blandine, M., Beatriz, G., Xu, Y.K.T., et al. “Multiple Sclerosis IPS-Derived Oligodendroglia Conserve Their Properties to Functionally Interact with Axons and Glia in Vivo.” Science Advances. (2020).
- Cui, Q.L., Lin, Y.H., Xu, Y.K.T., et al. “Effects of Biotin on survival, ensheathment, and ATP production by oligodendrocyte lineage cells in vitro.” PLOS ONE. (2020).
- Xu, Y.K.T., Chitsaz, D., Brown, R.A, Cui, Q.L., Dabarno, M.A., Antel, J.P., and Kennedy, T.E. “Deep Leaning for High Throughput Quantification of Oligodendrocyte Ensheathment at Single-Cell Resolution.” Communications Biology. (2019).
- Esmonde-White, C., Yaqubi, M., Bilodeau, P.A., Cui, Q.L., Pernin, F., Larochelle, C., Ghadiri, M., Xu, Y.K.T., et al., “Distinct Function-Related Molecular Profile of Adult Human A2B5-Positive Pre-Oligodendrocytes Versus Mature Oligodendrocytes, Journal of Neuropathology & Experimental Neurology.” (2019).
- Kremer, D., Gruchot, J., Weyers, V., Oldemeier, L., Göttle, P., Healy, L., Jang, J.H., Xu, Y.K.T., et al. “pHERV-W envelope protein fuels microglial cell-dependent damage of myelinated axons in multiple sclerosis.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.(2019).
- Esomnde-White, C., Bilodeau, P.A., Yaqubi, M., Cui, Q.L., Pernin, F., Larochelle, C., Ghadiri, M., Xu, Y.K.T., et al. “Distinct Function-Related Molecular Profile of Adult Human A2B5-Positive Pre-Oligodendrocytes Versus Mature Oligodendrocytes.” Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology. (2018).
- Xu, Y.K.T., Graves, A., Huganir, R., Sulam, J. “Super-resolving thousands of individual synapses in living mice using supervised image restoration”. In preparation.
Fellowships and awards
Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute Graduate Fellowship 2019
Boo Anderson Scholarship in Science 2017
Emily Ross Crawford Scholarship for Academic excellence 2015
NSERC-Undergraduate Student Research Award 2015
Sigma Chi Leadership Scholarship 2014
Governor General Bronze Medal 2014
Contact information
Department of Neuroscience
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
725 N. Wolfe St., WBSB 1001
Baltimore, MD 21205
Phone: (410) 955-6949
Fax: (410) 955-6942
Email: yxu130@jhmi.edu