Xiang-Yang Lou

Associate Professor

University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

biography

Dr. Lou earned his Ph.D. from Zhejiang University, China, in 1997. And then he was recruited as an Assistant Professor at Zhejiang University. He came to the U.S. for pursuing postdoctoral training in the Department of Statistics, the University of Florida, in 2002. He was a Research Associate and an Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia. He joined UAB as an Associate Professor in 2009. Dr. Lou's research interests include Biostatistics, Bioinformatics, Genetic Epidemiology, Statistical Genetics, and Population Genetics. His research primarily concentrates on developing and applying powerful innovative analysis methods to solve real-world biological problems such as gene-gene and gene-environment interactions, low statistical power, and allelic heterogeneity in genetic data analysis.

 

Area of Interest

1. Statistical Genetics: Development of innovativestatisticalmethodology for genetic and genomic studies of complex traitsin humans, plants and animals(e.g., joint linkage and association mapping method, GMDR for detecting gene-gene and gene-environment interactions)
2. Bioinformatics: Development of novelcomputationally efficientbioinformatics toolsscaled to large data sets for data mining thataim at hypothesis exploration and discovery(e.g., querying pathway and ontologydatabasesand in silicomapping)
3. Genetic Epidemiology:Planningstudy design andperforming data analysis of genetic epidemiological studies for complex human disorders using both linkage and association approaches (e.g., genome-wide association studies). The current focuses are nicotine dependence and other psychiatric disorders
4. Biostatistics: Clinical trial design, longitudinal data analysis, survival analysis, latent variable analysis and mixture modeling
5. Population Genetics: Development and application of new statistical approaches to genetic population inference, DNA structure analysis, genetic diversity evaluation, and paternity inference through mathematical and population genetic bridges such as coalescence modelandphylogeny construction
6. Plant Genetics and Breeding: Principles of plant genetics and breeding, theory of heterosis, selection theory,genetic analysis in plant breeding, genetic resource and germplasmpreservation,molecular breeding, maize breeding


top publication

1. Xu HM, Xu LF, Hou TT, Luo LF, Chen GB, Sun XW, Lou XY(2016). GMDR: Versatile software for detecting gene-gene and gene-environment interactions underlying complex traits. Current Genomics17 (5):396–402. (the senior author).
2. Zhou LY, LiuSY, WuWX, ChenDB, ZhanXD, ZhuAK, ZhangYX, ChengSH, CaoLY, LouXY, XuHM(2016).Dissection of genetic architecture of rice plant height and heading date by multiple-strategy-based association studies. Scientific Reports6:29718.
3. Yan Q, Weeks DE, Tiwari HK, Yi N, Zhang K, Gao G, Lin WY Lou XY, Chen W, Liu N (2016). Rare-variant kernel machine test for longitudinal data from population and family samples. Human Heredity80 (3):126–138.
4. Lou XY(2015). UGMDR: A unified conceptual framework for detection of multifactor interactions underlying complex traits. Heredity114 (3): 255–261. PMID: 25335557.
5. Qi T, Cao YJ, Cao LY, Gao YM, Zhu SJ, Lou XY, Xu HM (2015). Dissecting genetic architecture underlying seed traits in multiple environments. Genetics199 (1): 61–71.PMID: 25335503; PMCID: PMC4286693.
6. Xu HM, Jiang BB, Cao YJ, Zhang YX, Zhan XD, Shen XH, Cheng SH, Lou XY, Cao LY (2015). Detection of epistatic and gene-environment interactions underlying three quality traits in rice using high-throughput genome-wide data. BioMed Research InternationalVol. 5 2015: 135782. PMID: 26345334; PMCID: PMC4539430. (the co-senior author).
7. Park T, Van Steen K, Lou XY, Xiong M (2015) Statistical analysis of high-dimensional genetic data in complex traits (Editorial).BioMed Research InternationalVol. 2015: 564273.PMID: 26346557; PMCID: PMC4539419.
8. Yan Q, Tiwari HK, Yi N, Gao G, Zhang K, Lin WY, Lou XY, Cui X, Liu N (2015). A sequence kernel association test for dichotomous traits in family samples under a generalized linear mixed model. Human Heredity79 (2): 60–68.PMID: 25791389.
9. Xu HM, Kong XD, Chen F, Huang JX, Lou XY, Zhao JY (2015). Transcriptome analysis of Brassica napuspod using RNA-Seq and identification of lipid-related candidate genes. BMC Genomics16: 858. (the co-senior author).PMID: 26499887; PMCID: PMC4619414.
10. Yan Q, Weeks DE, Celedón JC, Tiwari HK, Li B, Wang X, Lin WY, Lou XY, Gao G, Liu N, Chen W (2015). Associating multivariate quantitative phenotypes with genetic variants in family samples with a novel kernel machine regression method. Genetics201 (4):1329–1339.PMID: 26482791; PMCID: PMC4676518.
11. Chen GB, Liu N, Klimentidis YC, Zhu X, Zhi D, Wang X, Lou XY(2014). A unified GMDR method for detecting gene-gene interactions in family and unrelated samples with application to nicotine dependence. Human Genetics133 (2): 139–150. PMID: 24057800; PMCID: PMC3947150. (the senior author).
12. Lin WY, Lou XY, Gao GM, Liu NJ (2014).Rare variant association testing by adaptive combination of p-values. PLoS One9 (1): e85728.PMID: 24454922; PMCID: PMC3893264.
13. Xu HM, Sun XW, Qi T, Lin WY, Liu N,Lou XY(2014). Multivariate dimensionality reduction approaches to identify gene-gene and gene-environment interactions underlying multiple complex traits. PLoS One9(9): e108103. PMID: 25259584; PMCID: PMC4178067. (the senior author).
14. Qi T, Jiang BB, Zhu ZH, Wei CS, Gao YM, Zhu SJ, Xu HM, Lou XY(2014). Mixed linear model approach for mapping quantitative trait loci underlying crop seed traits. Heredity113(3): 224–232. PMID: 24619175, [PubMed -in process]. (the co-senior author).
15. Yi N, Xu S, Lou XY,Mallick H (2014). Multiple comparisons in genetic association studies: a hierarchical modeling approach. Statistical Applications in Genetics and Molecular Biology 13 (1):35–48. PMID: 24259248.
16. Yan Q, Tiwari HK, Yi N, Lin WY, Gao G, Lou XY, Cui X, Liu N (2014). Kernel-machine testing coupled with a rank-truncation method for genetic pathway analysis. Genetic Epidemiology38 (5): 447–456. PMID: 24849109; PMCID: PMC4073214
17. Jiang BB, Yu SZ, Xiao BG, Lou XY, Xu HM (2014). Constructing linkage map based on a four-way cross population. Journal of Zhejiang University(Agriculture& Life Science)40 (4): 387–396.PMCID: PMC4274998
18. Lou XY(2014). Gene-gene and gene-environment interactions underlying complex traits and their detection(Mini-review).Biometrics & Biostatistics International Journal1 (2): 6 00007.PMCID: PMC4288817.
19. Lin WY, Yi N, Lou XY, Zhi D, Zhang K, Gao G, Tiwari HK, Liu N(2013). Haplotype kernel association test as a powerful method to identify chromosomal regions harboring uncommon causal variants. Genetic Epidemiology37 (6): 560–570.PMID: 23740760.
20. Zhu ZH, Hayart Y, Xiao BG, Yang J, Cao LY, Lou XY, Xu HM (2012). Statistical method for mapping QTLs for complex traits based on two backcross populations. Chinese Science Bulletin57 (21): 2645–2654.PMCID: PMC3924781.