Chang Lab Postdoc Xiao Xie wins regional Blavatnik Award
Xiao Xie, a postdoctoral scholar with the Chris Chang Lab, has been named a 2025 Blavatnik Regional Awards for Young Scientists laureate, a flagship distinction honoring outstanding postdoctoral researchers from academic institutions in New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut working in one of three disciplines.
The award is administered by the Blavatnik Family Foundation and the New York Academy of Sciences. The announcement, made this morning, coincides with this week’s National Postdoc Appreciation Week.
Xie is the honoree in the Chemical Sciences. Honorees were also chosen in the Life Sciences, and Physical Sciences & Engineering disciplines.
Xie was recognized for pioneering chemical biology tools to map protein phase separation and uncover molecular mechanisms underlying cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. In the Chang Lab, Xie also develops cutting-edge tools to explore how cells organize themselves and regulate essential metal ions such as copper.
As the 2025 laureate in Chemical Sciences, Xie will receive a personalized award medal as well as an unrestricted personal cash prize. Two finalists were also named in this category. Selections were made from a pool of 149 nominees representing 26 institutions.
“My work focuses on creating spatial chemical biology technologies to decipher the molecular codes underlying protein phase separation and its functional roles in physiology and disease,” said Xie. “This award provides me with the motivation and confidence to continue exploring the frontiers of the interdisciplinary field spanning chemistry, biology, and medicine.
“Of course I’m excited,” he added. “It’s especially meaningful because Chris (Chang) received a Blavatnik National Award in 2015, exactly 10 years ago. I look forward to seeing more postdocs at Princeton Chemistry earn similar honors in the years ahead.”
Len Blavatnik, founder and chair of the Blavatnik Family Foundation, said of the awards: “Young scientists represent the future of scientific thought. By honoring these young individuals and their achievements, we are helping to promote breakthroughs in science and technology that will define how our world will look in 20, 50, 100 years.”
The three awardees, and finalists, of the 2025 Blavatnik Regional Awards for Young Scientists. Xie is second from the left, top tier.
Chris Chang, the Edward and Virginia Taylor Professor of Bioorganic Chemistry, characterized Xie as an enthusiastically productive member of his lab.
“He’s really a tour de force, super energetic and engaged with science, and he really has an enthusiasm that’s infectious throughout the group,” said Chang. “What he has pushed forward is new types of platforms for what we call protein bioconjugation chemistry – ways to label individual amino acids that you can use from proteins all the way to proteomes.
“The work that he has gotten recognition for by the Blavatnik Foundation is the one on developing new methods for tryptophan and showing the biologies involved in how tryptophan residues are important in phase separation.”
Xie received his B.S from Wuhan University under the advisement of Xiang Zhou, and his Ph.D. from Peking University under the advisement of Peng Chen. Prior to coming to Princeton, he was a postdoc in the Chris Chang Lab at the University of California, Berkeley. At Berkeley, Xie was named a Tang Distinguished Scholar.
He will attend the black-tie celebration along with other honorees at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City next month.
As it does with all newly named Blavatnik laureates, the Foundation has prepared a video interview with Xie. It can be accessed here.
Princeton Chemistry last won a Blavatnik Regional Award in 2021, when Daniel Straus of the Cava Lab was named.
The Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists were established by the Blavatnik Family Foundation in 2007 and are independently administered by The New York Academy of Sciences. Nominations for the award are accepted each year from an invited group of research universities, independent research institutions, and government labs.
Members of the jury responsible for selecting the Blavatnik Regional Awards Honorees are distinguished scientists and engineers from various institutions in the tri-state area.
The Blavatnik Family Foundation provides many of the world’s accomplished researchers, scientists and future leaders with the support and funding needed to solve humankind’s greatest challenges. Led by Len Blavatnik, founder of Access Industries, the Foundation advances and promotes innovation, discovery and creativity to benefit the whole of society.