Lei Hou, PhD
Assistant Professor
Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
Medicine
Biomedical Genetics

PhD, Chinese Academy of Sciences
BE/BEng, Tsinghua University



Dr. Hou is a computational and systems biologist. He aims to empower precision medicine in the treatment of complex diseases from three perspectives: dissecting the function of disease-associated genetic variants from GWAS, elucidating cellular machinery contributing to diseases, and modeling genetic and other risk factors that impact disease trajectories.

Dr. Hou has over 15 years of research experience and has made significant contributions to the field of regulatory genomics and disease genetics, including a study of human primordial germ cell differentiation with time series single-cell RNA-seq data, the study of genetics of m6A and H3K27ac signals and their implications in complex diseases, and the investigation of immune roles in bipolar disorder. He has presented his research at several top-class national seminars and international conferences, including the World Congress of Psychiatric Genetics, Keystone conference of Epigenetics in Development and Disease, the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Meeting on Systems Biology, and the CSHL Asia Meeting on Molecular Basis of Aging and Disease. Dr Hou’s co-first authored work has also been published in high-impact journals, including Cell Metabolism, Nature Genetics, Cell Reports, and Aging Cell. He also served as an ad hoc reviewer for high-profiled journals including eLife, Aging Cell, Cell Reports, Frontiers in Genetics, Computers in Biology and Medicine, Current in Bioinformatics, Frontiers in Microbiology, Mathematical Biosciences, International Conference on Research in Computational Molecular Biology (RECOMB).

Dr. Hou received his BE degree in the Department of Automation, Tsinghua University (thesis supervisors: Drs. Xuegong Zhang and Jing-Dong Jackie Han), his Ph.D. of bioinformatics from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Supervisor: Dr. Jing-Dong Jackie Han), his postdoc trainings at Partner Institute for Computational Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (with Dr. Jing-Dong Jackie Han), and at Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, MIT (with Dr. Manolis Kellis).

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility

I value diversity as essential to scientific and personal growth, foster inclusive mentorship through support and open dialogue, and am committed to expanding access to science and building research communities grounded in respect, trust, and belonging.

Publications listed below are automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing publications. Faculty can login to make corrections and additions.

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  1. Liu Z, Zhang S, James BT, Galani K, Mangan RJ, Fass SB, Liang C, Wagle MM, Boix CA, Tanigawa Y, Yun S, Sung Y, Xiong X, Sun N, Hou L, Wohlwend M, Qiu M, Han X, Xiong L, Preka E, Huang L, Li WF, Ho LL, Grayson A, Mantero J, Kozlenkov A, Mathys H, Chen T, Dracheva S, Bennett DA, Tsai LH, Kellis M. Single-cell multiregion epigenomic rewiring in Alzheimer's disease progression and cognitive resilience. Cell. 2025 Sep 04; 188(18):4980-5002.e29. PMID: 40752494
     
  2. Gu Y, Chen J, Wang Z, Shao Q, Li Z, Ye Y, Xiao X, Xiao Y, Liu W, Xie S, Tong L, Jiang J, Xiao X, Yu Y, Jin M, Wei Y, Young RS, Hou L, Chen D. Integrated analysis and systematic characterization of the regulatory network for human germline development. J Genet Genomics. 2025 Feb; 52(2):204-219. PMID: 39571792
     
  3. Li C, Chen K, Fang Q, Shi S, Nan J, He J, Yin Y, Li X, Li J, Hou L, Hu X, Kellis M, Han X, Xiong X. Crosstalk between epitranscriptomic and epigenomic modifications and its implication in human diseases. Cell Genom. 2024 Aug 14; 4(8):100605. PMID: 38981476; PMCID: PMC11406187; DOI: 10.1016/j.xgen.2024.100605;
     
  4. Linna-Kuosmanen S, Schmauch E, Galani K, Ojanen J, Boix CA, Örd T, Toropainen A, Singha PK, Moreau PR, Harju K, Blazeski A, Segerstolpe Å, Lahtinen V, Hou L, Kang K, Meibalan E, Agudelo LZ, Kokki H, Halonen J, Jalkanen J, Gunn J, MacRae CA, Hollmén M, Hartikainen JEK, Kaikkonen MU, García-Cardeña G, Tavi P, Kiviniemi T, Kellis M. Transcriptomic and spatial dissection of human ex vivo right atrial tissue reveals proinflammatory microvascular changes in ischemic heart disease. Cell Rep Med. 2024 May 21; 5(5):101556. PMID: 38776872; PMCID: PMC11148807; DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2024.101556;
     
  5. Hou L, Xiong X, Park Y, Boix C, James B, Sun N, He L, Patel A, Zhang Z, Molinie B, Van Wittenberghe N, Steelman S, Nusbaum C, Aguet F, Ardlie KG, Kellis M. Multitissue H3K27ac profiling of GTEx samples links epigenomic variation to disease. Nat Genet. 2023 Oct; 55(10):1665-1676. PMID: 37770633; PMCID: PMC10562256; DOI: 10.1038/s41588-023-01509-5;
     
  6. Xiong X, James BT, Boix CA, Park YP, Galani K, Victor MB, Sun N, Hou L, Ho LL, Mantero J, Scannail AN, Dileep V, Dong W, Mathys H, Bennett DA, Tsai LH, Kellis M. Epigenomic dissection of Alzheimer's disease pinpoints causal variants and reveals epigenome erosion. Cell. 2023 Sep 28; 186(20):4422-4437.e21. PMID: 37774680; PMCID: PMC10782612; DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2023.08.040;
     
  7. Xiong X, Hou L, Park YP, Molinie B, Gregory RI, Kellis M. Genetic drivers of m6A methylation in human brain, lung, heart and muscle. Nat Genet. 2021 Aug; 53(8):1156-1165. PMID: 34211177; PMCID: PMC9112289; DOI: 10.1038/s41588-021-00890-3;
     
  8. The GTEx Consortium atlas of genetic regulatory effects across human tissues. Science. 2020 Sep 11; 369(6509):1318-1330. PMID: 32913098; PMCID: PMC7737656; DOI: 10.1126/science.aaz1776;
     
  9. Shi D, Xia X, Cui A, Xiong Z, Yan Y, Luo J, Chen G, Zeng Y, Cai D, Hou L, McDermott J, Li Y, Zhang H, Han JJ. The precursor of PI(3,4,5)P3 alleviates aging by activating daf-18(Pten) and independent of daf-16. Nat Commun. 2020 Sep 08; 11(1):4496. PMID: 32901024; PMCID: PMC7479145; DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18280-4;
     
  10. Chen D, Sun N, Hou L, Kim R, Faith J, Aslanyan M, Tao Y, Zheng Y, Fu J, Liu W, Kellis M, Clark A. Human Primordial Germ Cells Are Specified from Lineage-Primed Progenitors. Cell Rep. 2019 Dec 24; 29(13):4568-4582.e5. PMID: 31875561; PMCID: PMC6939677; DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2019.11.083;
     
Showing 10 of 22 results. Show More

This graph shows the total number of publications by year, by first, middle/unknown, or last author.

Bar chart showing 22 publications over 13 distinct years, with a maximum of 3 publications in 2024

YearPublications
20061
20071
20082
20112
20122
20162
20172
20191
20202
20211
20232
20243
20251

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