Xin (Crystal) Qing

PhD candidate in Nutrition & Metabolism at UW–Madison and M.S. CS (Machine Learning) student at Georgia Tech, connecting wet-lab metabolism, omics, and machine learning.

Map of projects and papers Wet lab & metabolism Omics & bioinformatics Machine learning Liver immune cells in MASLD

Projects

Microbiome & metabolomics

Integration of 16S rRNA sequencing with targeted LC-MS/MS metabolite profiles

Liver Cell Map

Interactive similarity graph of 93K mouse and human liver cells. Team project, in progress

In progress, Dec 2026

Publications

  1. Qing, X., Goodman, R. J., Ozturk, G., Leone, V. A., & Richards, M. P. (under review). Spray drying and fluidized bed drying differentially alter microstructure, macronutrient oxidation, and digestive behavior of whey protein phospholipid concentrate. Food Chemistry (submitted October 2026). Under review
  2. Gazi, M. A.†, Qing, X.†, Barrett-Wilt, G., Baker, S., Richards, M. P., & Leone, V. A. (in preparation). Characterization of cholesterol oxidation products formed during thermal processing using targeted quantification and untargeted annotation. (†co-first authors) In preparation
  3. Britt, E. C., Qing, X., Votava, J. A., Lika, J., Wagner, A., Shen, S., Arp, N. L., Khan, H., Schieke, S. M., Fletcher, C. D., Huttenlocher, A., & Fan, J. (2024). Activation induces shift in nutrient utilization that differentially impacts cell functions in human neutrophils. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2321212121
  4. John, S. V., Seim, G. L., Erazo-Flores, B. J., Steill, J., Freeman, J., Votava, J. A., Arp, N. L., Qing, X., Stewart, R., Knoll, L. J., & Fan, J. (2025). Classically activated macrophages undergo functionally significant nucleotide metabolism remodelling driven by nitric oxide. Nature Metabolism, 7, 1681–1702. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-025-01337-3
  5. MacDiarmid, C. W., Taggart, J., Wang, Y., Vashisht, A., Qing, X., Wohlschlegel, J., & Eide, D. (2025). The interactome of the baker's yeast peroxiredoxin Tsa1 implicates it in redox regulation of intermediary metabolism, glycolysis, and zinc homeostasis. Metallomics, 17(8), mfaf028. https://doi.org/10.1093/mtomcs/mfaf028
  6. Phan, L., Gatti, A., Han, Z., et al. (incl. Qing, X., consortium author and benchmark dataset contributor) (2025). Humanity's Last Exam. arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.14249. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2501.14249
  7. Qing, X., Chu, D., Rauf, H., & Skop, A. (2024). Lab Culture [Cookbook]. https://www.labculturerecipes.com/
Presentations
  • Kaur, M., Chrisler, E., Gazi, M. A., Hermanson, J. B., Qing, X., Prendergast, B. J., … (2026). Early-life microbial colonization shapes host circadian feeding rhythms and metabolic outcomes in mice [Abstract 349]. Gastroenterology, 170(6), S-1998–S-1999.
  • Qing, X., Richards, M., & Leone, V. Effects of spray and fluid bed drying on macronutrient stability, digestibility, and choline bioavailability of whey protein phospholipid concentrate. 2025 Dairy Innovation Hub Summit, University of Wisconsin–River Falls.
  • Qing, X., Richards, M., & Leone, V. Bile acids and other gut microbial metabolites as links between diet and microbe-driven metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease. 2025 Nutritional Sciences Recruitment Symposium, University of Wisconsin–Madison.
  • Qing, X., & Fan, J. Neutrophil metabolic reprogramming and functional change in hyperglycemia. 2024 Diabetes Research Day, University of Wisconsin–Madison.
  • Qing, X., & Fan, J. Activation induces shift in nutrient utilization that differentially impacts cell functions in human neutrophils. 2024 Nutritional Sciences Recruitment Symposium, University of Wisconsin–Madison.
  • Qing, X., John, S., & Fan, J. Macrophages undergo functionally significant reprogramming of nucleotide metabolism upon classical activation. 2023 Nutritional Sciences Recruitment Symposium, University of Wisconsin–Madison.
  • Qing, X., MacDiarmid, C., & Eide, D. Effect of zinc deficiency on intracellular hydrogen peroxide level in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. 2022 CALS Undergraduate Research Symposium, University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Service

About

PhD candidate in Nutrition and Metabolism (minor in Quantitative Biology) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, concurrently completing an M.S. in Computer Science (Machine Learning track) at Georgia Tech. I build machine learning and computational pipelines for high-dimensional biomedical data, including single-cell transcriptomics (140K+ cells), microbiome and LC–MS/MS metabolomics, and biomedical text and knowledge graphs, and connect them to experimental work on diet–microbe–host metabolism and metabolic liver disease. Co-author on publications in PNAS and Nature Metabolism.

Education

Teaching

Awards

Design & science communication

Scientific Graphic Designer, Molecular Genetics Lab, Department of Genetics; Department of Life Sciences Communication; Division of the Arts, University of Wisconsin–Madison (September 2022 – May 2025). Qing, X., Chu, D., Rauf, H., & Skop, A. (2024). Lab Culture [Cookbook]. https://www.labculturerecipes.com/

Contact: qing3@wisc.edu