Educational experience：

MSc: Zoology, Beijing Normal University, 2014; PhD: Philosophy at the Faculty of Science in the subject of Biology, Lund University, 2018

Statement：

My research interests mainly focus on the evolution of host-parasite associations, with haemosporidian parasites and their avian hosts as a model system. Understanding how, where and to what extent parasites can infect certain host is importance both to basic research of disease evolution and to society as a whole. To settle this issue, I am currently working on investigating the infection patterns and phylogenetic patterns of generalist haemosporidian parasites in their multiple hosts, as well as comparative phylogeny between hosts and parasites.

Selected Publication：

1. Huang, X.*, Rapševičius, P. Chapa-Vargas, L., Hellgren, O. & Bensch, S (2019). Within lineage divergence of avian haemosporidians: a case study to reveal the origin of a wide-spread Haemoproteus parasite. The Journal of Parasitology, 105(3) 414–422.

2. Huang, X.*, Ellis, VA., Jönsson, J., & Bensch, S. (2018). Generalist haemosporidian parasites are better adapted to a subset of host species in a multiple host community. Molecular Ecology, 27 (21), 4336-4346

3. Huang, X*., Hansson, R., Palinauskas, V., Valkiūnas, G., Hellgren, O., & Bensch, S. (2018). The success of sequence capture in relation to phylogenetic distance from a reference genome: a case study of avian haemosporidian parasites. International Journal for Parasitology, 48(12), 947-954.

4. Huang, X., Dong, L.*, Zhang, C., & Zhang, Y. (2015). Genetic diversity, temporal dynamics, and host specificity in blood parasites of passerines in north China. Parasitology research, 114(12), 4513-4520.

5. Jia T.#, Huang X.#, Valkiūnas G., Yang, M., Zheng, C., Pu, T., Zhang, Y., Dong, L., Suo, X., & Zhang, C., (2018). Malaria parasites and related haemosporidians cause mortality in cranes: a study on the parasites diversity, prevalence and distribution in Beijing Zoo. Malaria Journal, 17(1), 234.

6. Barrow, LN.*, Allen, JM., Huang, X., Bensch, S., & Witt, CC. (2019). Genomic sequence capture of haemosporidian parasites: Methods and prospects for enhanced study of host‐parasite evolution. Molecular Ecology Resources, 19(2), 400-410.

7. Ishtiaq, F., Rao, M., Huang, X., & Bensch, S. (2017). Estimating prevalence of avian haemosporidians in natural populations: a comparative study on screening protocols. Parasites & vectors, 10(1), 127.

8. Nilsson, E., Taubert, H., Hellgren, O., Huang, X., Palinauskas, V., Markovets, M.Y., Valkiūnas, G. & Bensch, S.,( 2016). Multiple cryptic species of sympatric generalists within the avian blood parasite Haemoproteus majoris. Journal of evolutionary biology, 29(9), 1812-1826.