Xiaofei Tian
· Professor of Chinese LiteratureHarvard University · Language and Literatures of Asia
Active 1990–2026
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About
Xiaofei Tian is the Ford Foundation Professor of East Asian Studies at Harvard University. Born in Harbin in 1971, she graduated from Peking University in 1989 and earned her PhD in Comparative Literature from Harvard University in 1998. After teaching at Colgate University and Cornell University, she joined Harvard's Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations in 2000. Her primary teaching and research focus is on Chinese literature and cultural history of the Middle Period, spanning the first through thirteenth centuries CE, though she has also engaged with late imperial and modern literature and culture. Tian's scholarly interests include poetry and poetics, the mediality of literature, court culture, and the complex interactions between Chinese literature and Buddhism. Her work explores how literary figures and texts negotiate cultural politics, ideological choices, and historical transformations, particularly through the lens of Buddhism and cultural trauma. Tian's notable publications include "Tao Yuanming and Manuscript Culture," which examines the roles of scribes, editors, readers, and commentators in shaping the image of the iconic poet Tao Yuanming, and "Beacon Fire and Shooting Star: The Literary Culture of the Liang (502–557)," which contextualizes court literature of the Liang dynasty and proposes a new poetics influenced by Buddhist views of the phenomenal world. She has also authored a Chinese-language study of the sixteenth-century novel "The Plum…
Research topics
- Genetics
- Biology
- Computational biology
- Cell biology
- Theology
- Philosophy
- Epistemology
- Medicine
- Pathology
- Bioinformatics
Selected publications
Reprogramming to recover youthful epigenetic information and restore vision
Nature · 2020 · 806 citations
Loss of epigenetic information as a cause of mammalian aging
Cell · 2023 · 603 citations
2025-06-16
preprintOpen access<div>Abstract<p>Aging is a known risk factor for melanoma, yet mechanisms underlying melanoma progression and metastasis in older populations remain largely unexplored. Aging might alter phenotypes of cells in the melanoma microenvironment, selecting for populations that support metastatic progression. In this study, we have demonstrated that age engenders the development of an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment, which is linked to phenotypes associated with melanoma metastasis…
2025-06-16
preprintOpen access<p>Supplementary Figure 2 shows how aging alters macrophage gene expression patterns</p>
2025-06-16
preprintOpen access<p>Supplementary Figure 3 shows how aging affects gene expression in CD8+ T cells.</p>
Recent grants
Epigenetic Reprogramming to Counteract Neuronal Aging and Degeneration
NIH · $340k · 2020–2023
Frequent coauthors
- 41 shared
Vadim N. Gladyshev
Brigham and Women's Hospital
- 34 shared
Andrei Seluanov
University of Rochester
- 34 shared
Vera Gorbunova
University of Rochester Medical Center
- 29 shared
David Sinclair
Harvard University
- 20 shared
Alice E. Kane
Institute for Systems Biology
- 19 shared
Margarita Meer
Brigham and Women's Hospital
- 19 shared
Yuancheng Lu
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- 19 shared
Daniel L. Vera
Florida State University
Education
- 2016
Ph.D, Biology
University of Rochester
Awards & honors
- Choice Outstanding Academic Title in 2006 for Tao Yuanming a…
- Patrick D. Hanan Book Prize for Translation by the Associati…
- Walter Channing Cabot Fellow in 2012
- Everett Mendelsohn Excellence in Mentoring Award in 2017
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