John Taylor, Professor of Economics at Stanford University and developer of the "Taylor Rule" for setting interest rates | Stanford University
John Taylor, Professor of Economics at Stanford University and developer of the "Taylor Rule" for setting interest rates | Stanford University
Stanford University's Xiaojie Qiu has been recognized with a High-Risk, High-Reward Research program grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This program acknowledges "highly innovative scientists who propose visionary and broadly impactful behavioral and biomedical research projects." Qiu serves as an assistant professor of genetics at Stanford Medicine and holds a courtesy appointment in computer science within the School of Engineering. He is also affiliated with the BASE program, Stanford Bio-X, and the Maternal & Child Health Research Institute.
Tara A. Schwetz, NIH deputy director for program coordination, planning, and strategic initiatives, commented on the award: “The HRHR program champions exceptionally bold and innovative science that pushes the boundaries of biomedical and behavioral research.” She added that “the groundbreaking science pursued by these researchers is poised to have a broad impact on human health.”
Qiu received a Director’s New Innovator Award from NIH, aimed at supporting early career investigators known for their creativity. The award targets those proposing bold research projects with potential significant impacts on areas important to the NIH mission.
Qiu's work involves developing computational frameworks like Monocle 2/3, Dynamo, and Spateo for learning developmental trajectories without supervision. His focus includes predictive RNA velocity vector fields and spatiotemporal modeling of whole mouse embryos. With this grant, he plans to create a foundational virtual model of mouse embryogenesis. This model aims to predict how genetic or environmental changes affect cell communication, growth, migration, and dynamics over time and space. Insights gained could illuminate disease pathogenesis such as congenital heart diseases.
The Qiu Lab was established at Stanford in December 2023. It concentrates on heart evolution, development, disease research, and is expanding its team with developmental biologists, technology developers, and machine learning experts.
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