Xuebing Ni

Assistant Professor, PhD Supervisor
nixuebing@bjmu.edu.cn
Xueyuan Road 38, Haidian District, Beijing, China
Peking University

Personal profile

Dr. Xuebing Ni is an Assistant Professor and Ph.D. Supervisor at the School of Public Health, Peking University. She received her Ph.D. from The University of Hong Kong in 2021 and completed her postdoctoral training at the State Key Laboratory of Emerging Infectious Diseases, The University of Hong Kong, from 2021 to 2025.

Her research focuses on viral evolution and adaptive mechanisms, ecological modeling of viral spillover, and AI-enabled early warning and risk prediction for infectious diseases. Her work has been published in leading international journals, including Nature Microbiology, Nature Communications, The ISME Journal, Microbiome, and eBioMedicine. She welcomes collaborations with researchers and clinicians in public health, infectious disease epidemiology, viral evolution, and bioinformatics.

Main research directions

The research group is dedicated to the early warning, evolutionary analysis, and risk assessment of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, with a particular focus on viral cross-species transmission and evolutionary dynamics. Its main research areas include:

1. Viral Evolutionary Tracing and Adaptive Mechanisms

By integrating genomics, evolutionary biology, and phylogenetic analysis, the group aims to identify key evolutionary events and molecular mechanisms underlying viral cross-host transmission and adaptation.

2. Ecological Modeling of Viral Spillover

The group develops ecological modelling of host–environment–pathogen interactions to investigate how climate change, habitat disturbance, and human activities shape the risk of viral spillover.

3. AI-based Early Warning and Risk Prediction

By combining multi-source data with artificial intelligence approaches, the group seeks to build models for the active detection of emerging pathogens and the dynamic prediction of transmission risks, thereby supporting proactive prevention and control strategies.

The group is actively seeking motivated research assistants, Ph.D. students, and postdoctoral researchers to join the team. Candidates with interests in infectious disease epidemiology, evolutionary genomics, bioinformatics, or related fields are warmly encouraged to get in touch.

Representative scientific research projects

10 representative papers

1. Ni XB, Ye YT, Wang GP, et al. Ecological factors and genetic features are associated with ecological generalism in pathogenic tick-borne viruses. Nature Communications. 2026. (In Press)

2. Ni XB, Pei Y, Ye YT, et al. Eco-climate drivers shape virome diversity in a globally invasive tick species. The ISME Journal. 2024;18:wrae087.

3. Ni XB, Cui XM, Liu JY, et al. Metavirome of 31 tick species provides a compendium of 1,801 RNA virus genomes. Nature Microbiology. 2023;8:162-173.

4. Du LF, Zhang MZ, Yuan TT, Ni XB (Co-first author), et al. New insights into the impact of microbiome on horizontal and vertical transmission of a tick-borne pathogen. Microbiome. 2023;11:50.

5. Jia N, Liu HB, Ni XB (Co-first author), et al. Emergence of human infection with Jingmen tick virus in China: A retrospective study. EBioMedicine. 2019;43:317-324.

6. Li LJ, Ning NZ, Zheng YC, Chu YL, Cui XM, Guo WB, Wei R, Liu HB, Sun Y, Ye JL, Jiang BG, Yuan TT, Li J, Bian C, Bell-Sakyi L, Wang H, Jiang JF, Song JL, Cao WC, Lam TTY, Ni XB (Co-corresponding author), Jia N. Virome and blood meal-associated host responses in Ixodes persulcatus naturally fed on patients. Frontiers in Microbiology. 2022;12:728996.

7. Jia N, Wang JF, Shi WQ, Du LF, Sun Y, Zhan W, Jiang JF, Wang Q, Zhang B, Ji PF, Lesley BS, Cui XM, Yuan TT, Jiang BG, Yang WF, Lam TTY, Chang QC, Ding SJ, Wang XJ, Zhu JG, Zhao L, Wei JT, Ye RZ, Que TC, Du CH, Zhou YH, Li LF, Wei W, Gao YC, Liu JZ, Shao HZ, Wang X, Wang CC, Yang TC, Huo QB, Li W, Chen HY, Chen SE, Zhou LG, Ni XB, et al. Large-scale comparative analyses of tick genomes elucidate their genetic diversity and vector capacities. Cell. 2020;182:1328-1340.

8. Lam TTY, Jia N, Zhang YW, Shum MHH, Jiang JF, Zhu HC, Tong YG, Ni XB, et al. Identifying SARS-CoV-2-related coronaviruses in Malayan pangolins. Nature. 2020;583:282-285.

9. Jiang JF, Zheng YC, Jiang RR, Li H, Huo QB, Jiang BG, Sun Y, Jia N, Wang YW, Ma L, Liu HB, Chu YL, Ni XB, et al. Epidemiological, clinical, and laboratory characteristics of 48 cases of Babesia venatorum infection in China: a descriptive study. The Lancet Infectious Diseases. 2015;15:196-203.

10. Ni XB, Jia N, Jiang BG, et al. Diverse genospecies of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato causing Lyme Borreliosis in China. Clinical Microbiology and Infection. 2014;20:808-814.