Xiang-Jin Meng, also known as X.J. Meng, is a Chinese-born American

virologist Virology is the scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host cells for reproduction, the ...

. He is a university distinguished professor at

Virginia Tech The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly referred to as Virginia Tech (VT), is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States ...

. He studies emerging, re-emerging and

zoonotic A zoonosis (; plural zoonoses) or zoonotic disease is an infectious disease of humans caused by a pathogen (an infectious agent, such as a virus, bacterium, parasite, fungi, or prion) that can jump from a non-human vertebrate to a human. When h ...

virus A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living Cell (biology), cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Viruses are ...

es of veterinary and human public health significance. He was elected a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

in 2016, a Fellow of the

National Academy of Inventors The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) is a US non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging inventors in academia, following the model of the National Academies of the United States. It was founded at the University of South Florida in 201 ...

in 2014, a Fellow of the

American Academy of Microbiology American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

in 2012, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Early life and education

Meng grew up in

Gaomi Gaomi () is a county-level city of eastern Shandong province, China, under the administration of Weifang City. It is the hometown of writer and 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature winner Mo Yan, who has set some of his stories in the region. Admin ...

, Shandong Province, China. He originally planned to pursue a career in

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of the operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials ...

, but instead he enrolled in

Binzhou Medical College Binzhou Medical University (BMU) () is a five-year medical school in Shandong Province, China. It was established in 1946 with faculty from Qingdao Medical College who moved to Binzhou Binzhou (, ), formerly Putai, is a prefecture-level ...

in 1980 as a medical student. Receiving his medical degree in 1985, Meng studied at the

Wuhan University Wuhan University (WHU; 武汉大学) is a key comprehensive public university in Wuhan, Hubei, China. It is directly affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Ministry of Education of China. The un ...

College of Medicine (formerly Hubei Medical College) and earned a Master's degree in Microbiology and Immunology. There, he discovered his passion and curiosity for

virology Virology is the Scientific method, scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host (biology), ...

, under the supervision of his graduate advisor, Yu Sun, who is an experimental virologist and pathologist. Earning his Master's in 1988, Meng worked as a research fellow for three years at the Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences in

Jinan Jinan is the capital of the province of Shandong in East China. With a population of 9.2 million, it is one of the largest cities in Shandong in terms of population. The area of present-day Jinan has played an important role in the history of ...

. In 1991, he was admitted to the interdepartmental

Immunobiology Immunology is a branch of biology and medicine that covers the study of immune systems in all organisms. Immunology charts, measures, and contextualizes the physiological functioning of the immune system in states of both health and diseases; ...

graduate program at the

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricult ...

. His PhD dissertation focused on an emerging virus,

porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), is a virus that causes a disease of pigs, called porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), also known as blue-ear pig disease (in Chinese, ''zhū láněr bìng'' 豬藍耳� ...

, in the laboratory of Prem S. Paul. After receiving his PhD in

, he joined the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases as a John E. Fogarty Visiting Scientist and later as a Senior Staff Fellow in the labs of Suzanne U. Emerson and Robert H. Purcell at the

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID, ) is one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. NIAID's mis ...

NIH The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. Located just northwest of Washington, D.C., it is a major business and government center of the Washington metropolitan region ...

Career and research

Meng joined the faculty at

in 1999 as an Assistant Professor of Molecular Virology, and rose to the rank of full professor in 2007. He was named a university distinguished professor in 2013. In July 2020, Meng was appointed as the founding director of the Virginia Tech Center for Emerging, Zoonotic and Arthropod-borne Pathogens (CeZAP). From November 2021 to November 2022, Meng served as Interim Executive Director of the Fralin Life Sciences Institute at Virginia Tech. His research mainly focuses on understanding the mechanism of virus replication and pathogenesis, defining the mechanisms of cross-species virus infection, and developing effective vaccines against emerging and zoonotic viruses. Meng's group discovered the swine hepatitis E virus from pigs and avian hepatitis E virus from chickens, which eventually lead to the recognition of human hepatitis E as a zoonotic disease. Meng's research also led to the invention of the first U.S. Department of Agriculture fully-license commercial vaccine, currently on the global market, against porcine circovirus type 2 ( PCV2) and its associated diseases. Additionally, Meng works on a number of other important viruses including Hepatitis E virus,

Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), is a virus that causes a disease of pigs, called porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), also known as blue-ear pig disease (in Chinese, ''zhū láněr bìng'' 豬藍耳� ...

, Torque Teno Sus Virus, and

Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PED virus or PEDV) is a coronavirus that infects the cells lining the small intestine of a pig, causing porcine epidemic diarrhoea, a condition of severe diarrhea and dehydration. Older hogs mostly get sick and ...

. Meng has authored and co-authored more than 362 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, which have been cited for more than 38,685 times with a h-index of 103. He is ranked in the top 1% highly cited scientists in the field of microbiology (1997–2007) by Thomson Scientific's Essential Science Indicators. Meng is an inventor of more than 20 U.S. patent awards on viral vaccines and diagnostics.

Awards and honors

* 2024: Recipient, NIH MERIT Award. * 2023: Virginia Tech Life Time Achievement Award for Innovation. * 2022: Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. * 2021: Recipient, Charles Valentine Riley Memorial Lecturer Award. Presented by AAAS, World Food Prize and Riley Foundation. * 2018
The Inaugural Lorraine J. Hoffman Graduate Alumni Award
Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. * 2017

* 2016: Elected member of the

. * 2014: Elected Fellow of the

. * 2013
University Distinguished Professor title
a pre-eminent and life-time title bestowed by the university Board of Visitors. * 2012: Elected Fellow of the

. * 2008: Recipient, Honorary Diplomat, American College of Veterinary Microbiologists. * 2008: Recipient, 2008 Virginia Tech Alumni Award for Research Excellence. * 2001 and 2007: Recipient, Pfizer Award for Research Excellence. * 1997: Recipient, NIH Fellows Award for Research Excellence. * 1996: Recipient, Iowa State University’s Zaffarano Prize for Graduate Student Research Excellence.

Selected publications

*Meng, X.J., P.S. Paul, and P.G. Halbur (1994). Molecular cloning and nucleotide sequencing of the 3' terminal genomic RNA of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus. ''Journal of General Virology'' 75:1795-1801
DOI: 10.1099/0022-1317-75-7-1795
*Meng, X.J., R.H. Purcell, P.G. Halbur, J.R. Lehman, D.M. Webb, T.S. Tsareva, J.S. Haynes, B.J. Thacker, and S.U. Emerson (1997). A novel virus in swine is closely related to the human hepatitis E virus. ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA'' 94:9860-9865
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.94.18.9860
* Meng, X.J., P.G. Halbur, M. Shapiro, S. Govindarajan, J.D. Bruna, I. K. Mushahwar, R.H. Purcell, and S.U. Emerson (1998). Genetic and experimental evidence for cross-species infection by the swine hepatitis E virus. ''Journal of Virology''. 72:9714-9721
DOI: 10.1128/JVI.72.12.9714-9721.1998
* Fenaux M, T. Opriessnig, P.G. Halbur, F. Elvinger, and X.J. Meng (2004). A Chimeric Porcine Circovirus (PCV) with the Immunogenic Capsid Gene of the Pathogenic PCV2 Cloned Into the Genomic Backbone of the Non-Pathogenic PCV1 Induces Protective Immunity Against PCV2 Infection in Pigs. ''Journal of Virology''. 78:6297-6303
DOI: 10.1128/JVI.78.12.6297-6303.2004
*Billam P., F.F. Huang, Z.F. Sun, F.W. Pierson, R.B. Duncan, F. Elvinger, D.K. Guenette, T.E. Toth, and X. J. Meng (2005). Systematic pathogenesis and replication of avian hepatitis E virus in specific-pathogen-free adult chickens. ''Journal of Virology''. 79(6):3429-37
DOI: 10.1128/JVI.79.6.3429-3437.2005
*Huang YW, K.K. Harrall, B.A. Dryman, T. Opriessnig, E.M. Vaughn, M.B. Roof, and X.J. Meng. 2012. Serological profile of Torque teno sus virus species 1 (TTSuV1) in pigs and antigenic relationships between two TTSuV1 genotypes (1a and 1b), between two species (TTSuV1 and 2), and between porcine and human anelloviruses. ''Journal of Virology''. 86(19):10628-10639
DOI: 10.1128/JVI.00176-12
*Huang YW, A.W. Dickerman, P. Pineyro, L. Li, L. Fang, R. Kiehne, T. Opriessnig, and X.J. Meng. 2013. Origin, evolution, and genotyping of emergent porcine endemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) strains in the United States. ''mBio''. 4(5):e00737-13
doi:10.1128/mBio.00737-13
*Cao D, Cao QM, Subramaniam S, Yugo DM, Heffron CL, Rogers AJ, Kenney SP, Tian D, Matzinger SR, Overend C, Catanzaro N, LeRoith T, Wang H, Piñeyro P, Lindstrom N, Clark-Deener S, Yuan L, and X.J. Meng. 2017. Pig model mimicking chronic hepatitis E virus infection in immunocompromised patients to assess immune correlates during chronicity. ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA''. 114(27):6914-6923
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1705446114
*Sooryanrain H, C.L. Heffron, and X.J. Meng. 2020. The U-rich untranslated regions (UTR) of the hepatitis E virus induces differential type I and type III interferon responses in a host cell-dependent manner. ''mBio''. 11:e03103-19
https://doi.org/10.1128/mBio.03103-19

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meng, Xiang-Jin Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Virginia Tech faculty Fellows of the National Academy of Inventors Iowa State University alumni American virologists Chinese emigrants to the United States People from Gaomi Scientists from Shandong Wuhan University alumni