Biography
I am a first-year master’s student in the Liang Lab. I graduated from Virginia Tech with a BS in Human Development and a minor in Biology. I am interested in investigating how diet and eating behavior impact behavior and the brain.
Research Interests
- Diet
- Maternal nutrition
- Neurobiology of energy metabolism
- Genetics
Research Description
My research focuses on the impact of nutrition and diet on brain function, behavior, and gene expression. In particular, I am interested in how maternal nutrition influences offspring development at the neural, behavioral, and molecular levels.
Currently, I am investigating how chronic stress, specifically social isolation, alters the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis response to acute stressors such as insulin-induced hypoglycemia. To examine this, I employ the RNAscope in situ hybridization technique to analyze the colocalization of corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) and the immediate early gene c-fos within the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus.
Recent Publications
Xu, X., Zhang, Z., Lin, Y., & Xie, H. (2024). Risk of Excess Maternal Folic Acid Supplementation in Offspring. Nutrients, 16(5), 755. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16050755