Ashley Xia, M.D., Ph.D.

Responsibilities & Activities

As a program director, I manage and oversee programs funded by the NIH Common Fund and by DEM. My projects include:

NIH Common Fund Programs

• Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity (MoTrPAC) in Humans evaluates molecular mechanisms of exercise with genomic, epigenomic, transcriptomics, metabolomics and proteomics. I serve as project scientist for the awards of Chemical Analysis sites and the Bioinformatics Center, and oversee the planning and execution of omics analyses, data QA/QC, integrated data analyses, and data sharing.
• Stimulating Peripheral Activity to Relieve Conditions (SPARC) strives to fill the gap of our understanding of nerve-organ interactions. I serve as a subject expert in the Subject Expert Committee for the Data Resource Centers (DRC) of Data-Core, Map-Core, and Simulation-Core and provide advice on data portal and data sharing.
• Systems Biology Data Platform Leveraging the Accelerating Medicines Partnership This initiative is part of the Venture Program, a new effort within the Common Fund to support novel, short-term, bold initiatives that have the potential for significant impact in biomedical and behavioral research. It provides technical and administrative coordination and support to enable broad use of the data sets and knowledge generated by the different initiatives funded by AMP, potentially in combination with other complementary data sets.

Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolic Diseases Program

• NIDDK Information Network (dkNET) supports the NIDDK community’s needs in data science by providing an information portal that connects users to data, analytical tools, and other biomedical research resources. Additionally, dkNET supports researchers by providing a hub for data-driven hypothesis generation; a suite of tools that assist users in FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) practice, and in improving rigor and reproducibility in research; and a variety of programs to enhance community engagement and
• Human Islet Research Network (HIRN) Pancreas Knowledgebase Program (PanKbase) develops a centralized resource of the human pancreas for diabetes research that will provide access to deeply curated high-quality datasets, knowledge in computable forms, and advanced data science tools and workflows; and enable open and reproducible multidisciplinary collaboration toward accelerating biomarker and therapeutic target development. The program will become a component of the Human Islet Research Network or HIRN (https://hirnetwork.org/).

Committees & Working Groups

• DEM Data Science Working Group, Co-Lead
• DEM Type 2 Diabetes Heterogeneity Working Group, Member
• Heterogeneity of Diabetes Working Group of Council, Member
• The NIH Data Sustainability Working Group, Member
• Trans-DK Data Management & Data Science Forum, DEM Representative