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Biology subjects

Xiao, N.

Publications and source records attributed to Xiao, N..

18 recordsLinked to original sources
bioRxiv2026

ClearGel: a thermoresponsive hydrogel for chronic, near-millimeter two-photon imaging through the intact skull

The intact skull remains a fundamental barrier to high-resolution two-photon neuroimaging in live mice. Existing skull-clearing methods, however, cannot simultaneously provide deep cortical access, spatial selectivity, reversibility, and biological safety. Here we introduce ClearGel, a thermoresponsive hydrogel that undergoes rapid in situ gelation upon contact with the skull, confining the clearing agents to the targeted region while sustaining their release over time. ClearGel routinely enables two-photon imaging down to approximately 800 m through the intact skull-a depth statistically equivalent to open-skull windows and substantially surpassing all prior approaches. It supports user-defined clearing patterns from focal sites to whole-skull coverage, allows repeated imaging over 14 days through a reversible optical interface, and, critically, enables awake functional imaging of both neuronal Ca2+ activity and the more elusive cAMP dynamics at single-cell resolution. ClearGel requires only simple topical application-no craniotomy or skull thinning-and provides a minimally invasive, chronic-compatible optical window for longitudinal studies of cortical function in behaving mice.

neuroscience↗
bioRxiv2026

Outer membrane stiffness gates multidrug tolerance

Bactericidal antibiotics initiate killing through class-specific target damage, yet the cellular properties that determine whether antibiotic-induced damage remains reversible or progresses to irreversible death remains unclear. Here, using kanamycin-centered evolution in Escherichia coli, we identified a multidrug-tolerant mutant that exhibits increased survival across aminoglycosides, {beta}-lactams, quinolones and polymyxins without altered minimum inhibitory concentrations. We demonstrate that mechanistically distinct antibiotics converge on outer membrane destabilization, revealing a shared downstream vulnerability during killing. Elevated outer membrane stiffness limits antibiotic-induced envelope destabilization, thereby gating multidrug tolerance. Orthogonal chemical and physical perturbations further established a quantitative relationship between outer membrane stiffness and antibiotic survival across drug classes. Our findings reveal outer membrane stiffness as a previously unrecognized physical basis of multidrug tolerance and suggest that modulating bacterial envelope mechanics may provide new opportunities for antimicrobial intervention.

microbiology↗
bioRxiv2026

Multi-Omics Reveals Activated Fibroblasts with Dual Functional Roles in Repair and Negative Barrier in the CD8+ T Cell Cytotoxic Niche for Lung Cancer Neoadjuvant Therapy

A major challenge in elucidating immune activation and tolerance is that single-omics technologies are inherently limited. Since single-cell transcriptomics lacks spatial information and spatial transcriptomics lacks resolution or depth, neither can adequately model the multidimensional tumor immune microenvironment (TiME) features. We present NICHE (Niche Integrated Cellular Heterogeneity Elucidator), an integrative multi-omics framework. By aligning physical cell-cell interactions with single-cell ligand-receptor (L-R) expression, NICHE leverages single-cell transcriptomics, spatial proteomics, and AI modeling to systematically decode the composition, spatial interactions, and communications within immune functional niches. To validate NICHEs capabilities, we applied it to human tonsil tissue. The framework successfully identified key structural and functional units and deeply elucidated the cell-cell interactions and molecular crosstalk within them. Furthermore, these results were validated through orthogonal methods, including single-cell spatial transcriptomics and multiplexed immunofluorescence, which confirmed the accuracy and reproducibility of our analyses. In non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients undergoing neoadjuvant immunotherapy, CD8+ T cell cytotoxic niches mediate tumor clearance with variable outcomes, to define the cellular and molecular drivers behind this functional spectrum, we utilized NICHE to analyze the TiME from patients with complete versus partial pathological response, both pre- and post-treatment. We found that neoadjuvant immunotherapy may induce the activation of CXCL12+, NECTIN2+, POSTN+, and COL6A1+ fibroblasts through the activation of cytotoxic T cells. Paradoxically, these fibroblasts support tissue repair but also establish an immunosuppressive niche that protects residual tumor cells, ultimately attenuating treatment efficacy. Our work establishes a multidimensional framework for dissecting dynamic immune activity, with direct implications for understanding tumor immunology and identifying novel therapeutic targets.

immunology↗
bioRxiv2025

Accelerating Virtual Directed Evolution of Proteins via Reinforcement Learning

With the advancement of machine learning methods, the protein fitness landscape can be predicted, providing reliable guidance in the selection of advantageous mutations for the directed evolution of proteins. However, the potential multiple mutational variants derived from the simple combi-nation of a limited number of advantageous single mutations may not represent superior choices. Moreover, the exploration and selection of the astronomical number of multiple mutational variants remain a highly challenging task. In this study, we introduce a virtual directed evolution pipeline, RelaVDEP, for the rapid identification of mutational variants with explicit enhancement in the de-sired property of the target protein. By adapting and fine-tuning a pre-trained fitness predictor to improve sequence-based protein functional prediction and by designing a model-based reinforce-ment learning framework to efficiently explore the vast combinatorial space of protein mutations, this pipeline is capable of effectively accelerating the directed evolution process for a broad spec-trum of proteins with versatile functional profiles. According to a series of experimental validations, the diversified mutational variants identified by our method exhibit notable improvements in desir-able protein functional properties. In particular, by integrating RelaVDEP with active learning, we successfully optimized the sequence of a PETase, enhancing its catalytic activity through previously unknown mutations.

bioinformatics↗
bioRxiv2024

Modest functional diversity decline and pronounced composition shifts of microbial communities in a uranium-contaminated aquifer

BackgroundMicrobial taxonomic diversity declines with increased environmental stress. Yet, few studies have explored whether phylogenetic and functional diversities track taxonomic diversity along the stress gradient. Here, we investigated bacterial communities within an aquifer in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA, which is characterized by a broad spectrum of stressors, including extremely high levels of nitrate, heavy metals like cadmium and chromium, radionuclides such as uranium, and extremely low pH (<3). ResultsBoth taxonomic and phylogenetic -diversities were reduced in the most impacted wells, while the decline in functional -diversity was modest and statistically insignificant, indicating a more robust buffering capacity to environmental stress. Differences in functional gene composition (i.e., functional {beta}-diversity) were pronounced in highly contaminated wells, while convergent functional gene composition was observed in uncontaminated wells. The relative abundances of most carbon degradation genes were decreased in contaminated wells, but genes associated with denitrification, adenylylsulfate reduction, and sulfite reduction were increased. Compared to taxonomic and phylogenetic compositions, environmental variables played a more significant role in shaping functional gene composition, suggesting that niche selection could be more closely related to microbial functionality than taxonomy. ConclusionsOverall, we demonstrated that despite a reduced taxonomic -diversity, microbial communities under stress maintained functionality underpinned by environmental selection.

microbiology↗
bioRxiv2024

Persistent lung inflammation and alveolar-bronchiolization due to Notch signaling dysregulation in SARS-CoV-2 infected hamster

Long COVID or Post-acute sequalae of COVID-19 (PASC) defines the persistent signs, symptoms, and conditions long after initial SARS-CoV-2 infection which affecting over 10% of COVID-19 patients, with 40% of them affecting respiratory system. The lung histopathological changes and underlying mechanism remain elusive. Here we systemically investigate histopathological and transcriptional changes at 7, 14, 42, 84 and 120 days-post-SARS-CoV-2-infection (dpi) in hamster. We demonstrate persistent viral residues, chronic inflammatory and fibrotic changes from 42dpi to 120dpi. The most prominent lung histopathological lesion is multifocal alveolar-bronchiolization observed in every animal from 14dpi until 120dpi. However, none of the above are observed in hamsters recovered from influenza A infection. We show airway progenitor CK14+ basal cells actively proliferate, differentiate into SCGB1A+ club cell or Tubulin+ ciliated cells, leading to alveolar-bronchiolization. Most importantly, Notch pathway is persistently upregulated. Intensive Notch3 and Hes1 protein expression are detected in alveolar-bronchiolization foci, suggesting the association of sustained Notch signaling with dysregulated lung regeneration. Lung spatial transcriptomics show upregulation of genes positively regulating Notch signaling is spatially overlapping with alveolar-bronchiolization region. To be noted, significant upregulation of tumor-related genes was detected in abnormal bronchiolization region by spatial transcriptomics analysis, indicating possible risk of lung carcinoma. Collectively, our data suggests SARS-CoV-2 infection caused chronic inflammatory and fibrotic tissue damages in hamster lung, sustained upregulation of Notch pathway signaling contributed to the dysregulated lung regeneration and CK14+ basal cells-driven alveolar-bronchiolization. The study provides important information for potential therapeutic approaches and probable long-term surveillance of malignancy in PASC management.

microbiology↗
bioRxiv2022

3D (x-y-t) Raman imaging of tomato fruit cuticle: microchemistry during development

The cuticle of tomato fruits was studied in-situ using Confocal Raman Microscopy. Microsections from cuticles isolated at different developmental stages were scanned to reveal the distribution of cuticle components with a spatial resolution of 342 nm by univariate and multivariate data analysis. From the three main components, cutin, polysaccharides and aromatics, the latter one exhibit the strongest Raman scattering intensity. Therefore, Raman imaging opened the view on phenolic acids and flavonoids within the cuticle and resulted in three schematic cuticle models depicting development. At the earliest stage of development, which corresponded to the procuticle layer, phenolic acids were found across the entire cuticle. Based on a mixture analysis with reference component spectra, the phenolic acids were identified as mainly esterified p-coumaric acid together with free p-hydroxybenzoic acid. Later in development, during the cell expansion period of growth, phenolic acids accumulated in an outermost layer of the cuticle and in the middle region of the pegs. In these stages of development cellulose and pectin were appeared towards the epidermal layer, where later during ripening the flavonoid impregnation started. In the first ripening stage chalconaringenin was observed, while methoxylated chalcones were chosen by the algorithm to fit the mature cuticle spectra. The co-location with carbohydrates and esterified p-coumaric acid and methoxylated chalconaringenin suggest that they link polysaccharide and cutin domains. Within the cutin matrix, aromatics confer mechanical and thermal functions, while the outermost phenolic acid layer displays UV-B protection of the plant tissue. One-sentence summaryNew insights into the distribution of cutin, carbohydrates and phenolics along cross sections of green and mature tomato fruit cuticles by Raman mapping and multivariate data analysis.

biophysics↗
bioRxiv2022

EcoFun-MAP: An Ecological Function Oriented Metagenomic Analysis Pipeline

Annotating ecological functions of environmental metagenomes is challenging due to a lack of specialized reference databases and computational barriers. Here we present the Ecological Function oriented Metagenomic Analysis Pipeline (EcoFun-MAP) for efficient analysis of shotgun metagenomes in the context of ecological functions. We manually curated a reference database of EcoFun-MAP which is used for GeoChip design. This database included [~]1,500 functional gene families that were catalogued by important ecological functions, such as carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur cycling, metal homeostasis, stress responses, organic contaminant degradation, antibiotic resistance, microbial defense, electron transfer, virulence and plant growth promotion. EcoFun-MAP has five optional workflows from ultra-fast to ultra-conservative, fitting different research needs from functional gene exploration to stringent comparison. The pipeline is deployed on High Performance Computing (HPC) infrastructure with a highly accessible web-based interface. We showed that EcoFun-MAP is accurate and can process multi-million short reads in a minute. We applied EcoFun-MAP to analyze metagenomes from groundwater samples and revealed interesting insights of microbial functional traits in response to contaminations. EcoFun-MAP is available as a public web server at http://iegst1.rccc.ou.edu:8080/ecofunmap/.

bioinformatics↗
bioRxiv2022

Assessing Comparative Microbiome Performance in Plant Cell Wall Deconstruction Using Multi-omics-Informed Network Analysis

Plant cell walls are interwoven structures recalcitrant to degradation. Both native and adapted microbiomes are particularly effective at plant cell wall deconstruction. Studying these deconstructive microbiomes provides an opportunity to assess microbiome performance and relate it to specific microbial populations and enzymes. To establish a system assessing comparative microbiome performance, parallel microbiomes were cultivated on sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) from compost inocula. Biomass loss and biochemical assays indicated that these microbiomes diverged in their ability to deconstruct biomass. Network reconstructions from time-dependent gene expression identified key deconstructive groups within the adapted sorghum-degrading communities, including Actinotalea, Filomicrobium, and Gemmanimonadetes populations. Functional analysis of gene expression demonstrated that the microbiomes proceeded through successional stages that are linked to enzymes that deconstruct plant cell wall polymers. This combination of network and functional analysis highlighted the importance of celluloseactive Actinobacteria in differentiating the performance of these microbiomes.

microbiology↗
bioRxiv2021

Metformin abrogates pathological TNF-α-producing B cells through mTOR-dependent metabolic reprogramming in polycystic ovary syndrome

B cells contribute to the pathogenesis of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Clinically, metformin is used to treat PCOS, but it is unclear whether metformin exerts its therapeutic effect by regulating B cells. Here, we showed that the expression level of TNF- in peripheral blood B cells from PCOS patient was increased. Metformin used in vitro and in vivo was able to reduce the production of TNF- in B cells from PCOS patient. Administration of metformin improved mouse PCOS phenotypes induced by dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and also inhibited TNF- expression in splenic B cells. Further, metformin induced metabolic reprogramming of B cells in PCOS patients, including the alteration in mitochondrial morphology, the decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential, ROS production and glucose uptake. In DHEA-induced mouse PCOS model, metformin altered metabolic intermediates in splenic B cells. Moreover, the inhibition of TNF- expression and metabolic reprogramming in B cells of PCOS patients and mouse model by metformin were associated with decreased mTOR phosphorylation. Together, TNF--producing B cells are involved in the pathogenesis of PCOS, and metformin inhibits mTOR phosphorylation and affects metabolic reprogramming, thereby inhibiting TNF- expression in B cells, which may be a new mechanism of metformin in the treatment of PCOS.

cell biology↗
bioRxiv2021

Endocytic Trafficking Promotes Vacuolar Enlargements for Fast Cell Expansion Rates in Plants

The vacuole has a space-filling function, allowing a particularly rapid plant cell expansion with very little increase in cytosolic content (Lofke et al., 2015; Scheuring et al., 2016; Dunser et al., 2019). Despite its importance for cell size determination in plants, very little is known about the mechanisms that define vacuolar size. Here we show that the cellular and vacuolar size expansions are coordinated. By developing a pharmacological tool, we enabled the investigation of membrane delivery to the vacuole during cellular expansion. Counterintuitively, our data reveal that endocytic trafficking from the plasma membrane to the vacuole is enhanced in the course of rapid root cell expansion. While this "compromise" mechanism may theoretically at first decelerate cell surface enlargements, it fuels vacuolar expansion and, thereby, ensures the coordinated augmentation of vacuolar occupancy in dynamically expanding plant cells.

plant biology↗
bioRxiv2021

Transcriptional condensates formed by phase-separated ALOG family proteins control flowering and inflorescence architecture in tomato

Plants have evolved remarkable diversity in inflorescence architecture. At the center of this diversity lies a meristem maturation program featured by transition of stem cell populations from a vegetative state into a reproductive growth, determining when, where, and how many flowers are produced on inflorescences. Here we identified a new meristem maturation regulator TMF FAMILY MEMBER3 (TFAM3) that encodes an ALOG family transcription factor. Loss of TFAM3 results in early flowering and simplified inflorescences with fewer flowers. Genetic analysis by creating high-order mutants of TFAM3 with three key regulators of tomato shoot meristem maturation, TERMINATING FLOWER (TMF), TMF FAMILY MEMBER1 (TFAM1) and TMF FAMILY MEMBER2 (TFAM2), suggested that they synergistically control flowering transition and inflorescence architecture. The four paralogous ALOG proteins share the prion-like properties and undergo liquid-liquid phase separation in vitro. Strikingly, TMF can recognize cognate TFAM proteins and selectively recruit them into phase separated condensates. Supporting this, they interact with themselves and each other to form biomolecular condensates in the nucleus. Their interaction induces formation of transcriptional condensates that directly repress expression of floral identity gene ANANTHA. Our study revealed a selective-recruitment phase separation mechanism for transcriptional condensation by which plants achieve optimal coordination of functional overlapped paralogs within a protein family to enable precise control of shoot meristem maturation for flowering and production of compound inflorescences.

plant biology↗
bioRxiv2020

Cellulosic wall thickenings restrict cell expansion to shape the 3D puzzle sclereids of the walnut shell

Walnut (Juglans regia) kernels are protected by a tough shell consisting of polylobate sclereids that interlock into a 3D puzzle. The shape transformations from isodiametric to lobed cells is well documented for 2D pavement cells, but not for 3D puzzle sclereids. Here, we tackle the morphogenesis of these cells by using a combination of different imaging techniques. Serial face-microtomy enabled us to reconstruct tissue growth of whole walnut fruits in 3D and serial block face-scanning electron microscopy exposed cell shapes and their transformation in 3D during shell tissue development. In combination with Raman and fluorescence microscopy we revealed multiple loops of cellulosic thickenings in cell walls, acting as stiff restrictions during cell expansion and leading to the lobed cell shape. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of the 3D shape transformation of polylobate sclereids and the role of pectin and cellulose within this process.

plant biology↗
bioRxiv2020

Strengthening the BioCompute Standard by Crowdsourcing on PrecisionFDA

BackgroundThe field of bioinformatics has grown at such a rapid pace that a gap in standardization exists when reporting an analysis. In response, the BioCompute project was created to standardize the type and method of information communicated when describing a bioinformatic analysis. Once the project became established, its goals shifted to broadening awareness and usage of BioCompute, and soliciting feedback from a larger audience. To address these goals, the BioCompute project collaborated with precisionFDA on a crowdsourced challenge that ran from May 2019 to October 2019. This challenge had a beginner track where participants submitted BCOs based on a pipeline of their choosing, and an advanced track where participants submitted applications supporting the creation of a BCO and verification of BCO conformance to specifications. ResultsIn total, there were 28 submissions to the beginner track (including submissions from a bioinformatics masters class at George Washington University) and three submissions to the advanced track. Three top performers were selected from the beginner track, while a single top performer was selected for the advanced track. In the beginner track, top performers differentiated themselves by submitting BCOs that included more than the minimally compliant content. Advanced track submissions were very impressive. They included a complete web application, a command line tool that produced a static result, and a dockerized container that automatically created the BCO as the tool was run. The ability to harmonize the correct function, a simple user experience, and the aesthetics of the tool interface differentiated the tools. ConclusionsDespite being new to the concept, most beginner track scores were high, indicating that most users understood the fundamental concepts of the BCO specification. Novice bioinformatics students were an ideal cohort for this Challenge because of their lack of familiarity with BioCompute, broad diversity of research interests, and motivation to submit high-quality work. This challenge was successful in introducing the BCO to a wider audience, obtaining feedback from that audience, and resulting in a tool novices may use for BCO creation and conformance. In addition, the BCO specification itself was improved based on feedback illustrating the utility of a "wisdom of the crowd" approach to standards development.

bioinformatics↗
bioRxiv2020

CRIMSON: An Open-Source Software Framework for Cardiovascular Integrated Modelling and Simulation

In this work, we describe the CRIMSON (CardiovasculaR Integrated Modelling and SimulatiON) software environment. CRIMSON provides a powerful, customizable and user-friendly system for performing three-dimensional and reduced-order computational haemodynamics studies via a pipeline which involves: 1) segmenting vascular structures from medical images; 2) constructing analytic arterial and venous geometric models; 3) performing finite element mesh generation; 4) designing, and 5) applying boundary conditions; 6) running incompressible Navier-Stokes simulations of blood flow with fluid-structure interaction capabilities; and 7) post-processing and visualizing the results, including velocity, pressure and wall shear stress fields. A key aim of CRIMSON is to create a software environment that makes powerful computational haemodynamics tools accessible to a wide audience, including clinicians and students, both within our research laboratories and throughout the community. The overall philosophy is to leverage best-in-class open source standards for medical image processing, parallel flow computation, geometric solid modelling, data assimilation, and mesh generation. It is actively used by researchers in Europe, North and South America, Asia, and Australia. It has been applied to numerous clinical problems; we illustrate applications of CRIMSON to real-world problems using examples ranging from pre-operative surgical planning to medical device design optimization. CRIMSON binaries for Microsoft Windows 10, documentation and example input files are freely available for download from www.crimson.software, and the source code with compilation instructions is available on GitHub https://github.com/carthurs/CRIMSONFlowsolver (CRIMSON Flowsolver) under the GPL v3.0 license, and https://github.com/carthurs/CRIMSONGUI (CRIMSON GUI), under the AGPL v3.0 license. Support is available on the CRIMSON Google Groups forum, located at https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/crimson-users.

bioengineering↗
bioRxiv2020

Expanding the Coverage of the Metabolic Landscape in Cultivated Rice with Integrated Computational Approaches

Genome-scale metabolomics analysis is increasingly used for pathway and function discovery in post-genomics era. The great potential offered by developed mass spectrometry (MS)-based technology has been hindered by the obstacle that only a small portion of detected metabolites were identifiable so far. To address the critical issue of low identification coverage in metabolomics, we adopted a deep metabolomics analysis strategy by integrating advanced algorithms and expanded reference databases. The experimental reference spectra, and in silico reference spectra were adopted to facilitate the structural annotation. To further characterize the structure of metabolites, two approaches, structural motif search combined with neutral loss scanning, and metabolite association network were incorporated into our strategy. An untargeted metabolomics analysis was performed on 150 rice cultivars using Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography (UPLC)-Quadrupole (Q)-Orbitrap mass spectrometer. 1939 of 4491 metabolite features in MS/MS spectral tag (MS2T) library were annotated, representing an extension of annotation coverage by an order of magnitude on rice. The differential accumulation patterns of flavonoids between indica and japonica cultivars were revealed, especially O-sulfated flavonoids. A series of closely-related flavonolignans were characterized, adding further evidence for the crucial role of tricin-oligolignols in lignification. Our study provides a great template in the exploration of phytochemical diversity for more plant species.

bioinformatics↗
bioRxiv2019

Accurate Prediction of Genome-wide RNA Secondary Structure Profile Based On Extreme Gradient Boosting

MotivationMany studies have shown that RNA secondary structure plays a vital role in fundamental cellular processes, such as protein synthesis, mRNA processing, mRNA assembly, ribosome function and eukaryotic spliceosomes. Identification of RNA secondary structure is a key step to understand the common mechanisms underlying the translation process. Recently, a few experimental methods were developed to measure genome-wide RNA secondary structure profile through high-throughput sequencing techniques, and have been successfully applied to genomes including yeast and human. However, these high-throughput methods usually have low precision and are hard to cover all nucleotides on the RNA due to limited sequencing coverage.\n\nResultsIn this study, we developed a new method for the prediction of genome-wide RNA secondary structure profile (TH-GRASP) from RNA sequence based on eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost). The method achieves an prediction with areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) values greater than 0.9 on three different datasets, and AUC of 0.892 by an independent test on the recently released Zika virus RNA dataset. These AUCs represent a consistent increase of >6% than the recently developed method CROSS trained by a shallow neural network. A further analysis on the 1000-Genome Project data showed that our predicted unpaired probability at mutations sites are highly correlated with the minor allele frequencies (MAF) of synonymous, non-synonymous mutations, and mutations in 3 and 5UTR with Pearson Correlation Coefficients all above 0.8. These PCCs are consistently higher than those generated by RNAplfold method. Moreover, an investigation over all human mRNA indicated a periodic distribution of the predicted unpaired probability on codons, and a decrease of paired probability in the boundary with 5 and 3 untranslated regions. These results highlighted TH-GRASP is effective to remove experimental noises and to have ability to make predictions on nucleotides with low or no coverage by fitting high-throughput genomic data for RNA secondary structure profiles, and also suggested that building model on high throughput experimental data might be a future direction to substitute analytical methods.\n\nAvailabilityThe TH-GRASP is available for academic use at https://github.com/sysu-yanglab/TH-GRASP.\n\nSupplementary informationSupplementary data are available online.

bioinformatics↗
bioRxiv2019

China’s Development Assistance for Health on Key Tropical Diseases: A SWOT Analysis

BackgroundWHO focused and gave priority on ten serious tropical diseases, while China has made remarkable achievements on tropical diseases control. In addition, China has a history of more than 60 years in the health assistance, however, its assistance for tropical diseases started late.\n\nMethodsA qualitative questionnaire was distributed to inquiry the opinions of professionals on Chinas health assistance on tropical diseases and published articles were searched to collect those data. SWOT analysis, as a tool of qualitative analysis, was used to classify and evaluate the current strengths, the weakness, the opportunities, and the threats of health assistance on tropical diseases in China.\n\nResultsBased on SWOT analysis, the internal factors and external environments are obtained. The strengths are focused on Chinas achievements on tropical diseases control, surveillance response system of tropical diseases, and human resources of public health; the weakness laid on sustainability of aid projects and funding, applicability of Chinese experience, and lack of composite talents; the opportunities are mainly in the global need of tropical diseases control, Chinas health cooperation in Belt & Road and Africa, and the actively participating of international organizations in health assistance; as well as the threats are reflected in the complex international situation, domestic needs of tropical diseases control, and the significant gaps between China and developed countries.\n\nConclusionThe internal strengths and weaknesses of development assistance for health on tropical diseases are clearly presented in the SWOT framework, as well as the external opportunities and threats and corresponding coping strategies. In the era of global health, China should strengthen and improve the health assistance for tropical diseases.\n\nAuthor summaryTropical diseases are serious infections in tropical and sub-tropical regions, with billions of persons infected and millions of deaths every year, especially in Africa. WHO also called for global efforts to control and eliminate tropical diseases. In the era of global health, development assistance on tropical diseases is important to demonstrate the soft power of national diplomacy, and China has started its health assistance in 1963. In this paper, a qualitative questionnaire and published articles were combined to collect data, and then SWOT analysis was used to analyze the internal factors and external environment, that is the current strengths, the weakness, the opportunities, and the threats of the Chinas Health Assistance on key tropical diseases. Based on those results, we put forward the countermeasures and suggestions for the future cooperation of tropical diseases. At the end of this paper, we call on Chinese professionals should make use of their own advantages and actively improve the global tropical diseases control.

epidemiology↗