Xiaonan Guan is the postdoctoral research associate in Dr. Chenxu Zhu’s laboratory, focusing on investigating the epigenetic pathological mechanisms of neurological diseases.

She received her Ph.D. in Genetics from Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (2020). She conducted her initial postdoctoral research in Dr. Shawn Liu’s lab at Columbia University. In Dr. Liu’s lab, one of her research projects focused on utilizing multiple CRISPR based epigenetic editing tools to rescue the FXN gene in Friedriech’s Ataxia cells. Xiaonan was selected as the prestigious Friedriech’s Ataxia Research Alliance (FARA) fellow in 2023 that recognizes promising young investigators in this research field.

Outside of the lab, Xiaonan likes swimming, ice skating, and decluttering. She also enjoys sharing her research with the public through popular science communication.