Yong Xiong is an Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University. Dr. Xiong received his undergraduate training in Physics from Tsinghua University in China and received his Ph.D. in Biophysics from Ohio State University in 2000. After working as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Professor Thomas Steitz at Yale University, Dr. Xiong started his own research group in 2006, directing investigations on host immune responses to viral infections and tumor immunology. Dr. Xiong is the Director of Graduate Studies at the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, and co-director of the Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology track of the Yale Combined Program in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences. Dr. Xiong's research group strives to understand how human antiviral proteins suppress HIV infection and how HIV evades these defenses, and how the human immune system controls cancer development. To accomplish these goals, Dr. Xiong applies structural biology, biochemical, and computational methods to interrogate diverse molecular interactions. Dr. Xiong has made significant contributions to the biomedical research community by furnishing illuminating results for many new cellular pathways. Insights stemming from Dr. Xiong’s work are anticipated to provide the intellectual basis for developing new therapeutic strategies that empower the human immune system to more effectively control viral infection and cancer.