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Xianlin Han, Ph.D.

Professor of Medicine, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

Xianlin Han received his Ph.D. in Chemistry at Washington University in St. Louis and trained as a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Richard W. Gross’ lab in Washington University School of Medicine (WUSTL). Dr. Han was promoted to Associate Professor of Medicine with tenure in WUSTL in 2008 and a Professor at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, Orlando, FL, between 2010 and 2017. Dr. Han joined Barshop Institute for longevity and Aging Studies at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) as an endowed chair professor, and the Professor of Medicine. Dr. Han is also a joint professor in Department of Biochemistry and Structural Biology and at Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s & Neurodegenerative Diseases at UT Health San Antonio. Dr. Han has been a guest professor of multiple Institutes/Universities in China including Soochow University, Ocean University of China, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, and Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Dr. Han served as the President of Chinese American Society for Mass Spectrometry and serves as the Secretary of International Lipidomics Society. Dr. Han served as standing members of NIH study sections and many other grants review committees.

Lipidomics, which facilitates large-scale analysis of cellular lipidomes based on the principles and techniques of analytical chemistry, allows us to comprehensively and effectively determine alterations in lipid metabolism, signaling, and homeostasis under different conditions. Dr. Han is one of the pioneers in lipidomics and the inventor of shotgun lipidomics. He has published over 330 peer-reviewed papers with an H-index of 92 and citations over 30,000 (Google Scholar 2022). He holds 7 international patents. He is the author of the book “Lipidomics: Comprehensive Mass Spectrometry of Lipids” and the co-author of the book “Lipid Analysis (4th Edition)” with Dr. William W. Christie, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Dr. Han is the associate editor of “Journal of Lipid Research” and serves as a member of the editorial board of numerous international journals, including Biochimica et Biophysica Acta – Molecular and Cell Biology of Lipids, Analytica Chimica Acta, Metabolites, Life Metabolism, etc.

Han has strong research interests in functional lipidomics, that is, uncovering alterations in lipid metabolism, signaling, and homeostasis that occur under patho(physio)logical conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), diabetes, and aging by lipidomics; identifying the underlying mechanisms leading to altered lipids; unraveling the consequences induced by these lipid changes in the context of diseases; and developing drug targets for the diseases based on the mechanistic and consequence studies.

https://barshopinstitute.uthscsa.edu/team-member/han-xianlin/

https://barshopinstitute.uthscsa.edu/

https://barshopinstitute.uthscsa.edu/cores/barshop-institute-functional-lipidomics-core/

Related Research:

Identification and Validation of Plasma-Based Lipid Biomarkers for Early Alzheimer’s Disease in the Unique, Primarily Hispanic, South Texas Population Xianlin Han Bernard Fongang Juan Pablo Palavicini Tiffany F. Kautz 2023-02-23

Funded Research

These projects were made possible from Cure Alzheimer's Fund support.

Project Description Researchers Funding
Identification and Validation of Plasma-Based Lipid Biomarkers for Early Alzheimer’s Disease in the Unique, Primarily Hispanic, South Texas Population 2023, 2024

$402,500

Selected Publications

These published papers resulted from Cure Alzheimer’s Fund support.

Xu, Z., Kiani Shabestari, S., Barannikov, S., Bieniek, K. F., Blurton-Jones, M., Palavicini, J. P., & Han, X. Microglia-specific regulation of lipid metabolism in Alzheimer’s disease revealed by microglial depletion in 5xFAD Mice, Nature Communications, October 15, 2025, Read More

Inoue, Y., Wang, H., Heckman, M. G., Ren, Y., White, L. J., Lu, W., Wang, P., Tcw, J., Koga, S., Alnobani, A., DeTure, M., Murray, M. E., Petersen, R. C., Dickson, D. W., Bu, G., Han, X., & Kanekiyo, T. Impact of APOE on cerebrovascular lipid profile in Alzheimer’s disease, Acta Neuropathologica, October 8, 2025, Read More

Yang, L., Chan, M., Sheng, J., Qi, S., Chan, B., Shantaram, D., Rima, X. Y., Reategui, E., Han, X., Hsueh, W. A., & Wong, S. T. C. Decoding adipose–brain crosstalk: Distinct lipid cargo in human adipose-derived extracellular vesicles modulates amyloid aggregation in Alzheimer’s disease, Alzheimer's & Dementia, October 2, 2025, Read More

He, S., Li, X., Mittra, N., Bhattacharjee, A., Wang, H., Song, S., Zhao, S., Liu, F., & Han, X. Microglial cGAS Deletion Preserves Intercellular Communication and Alleviates Amyloid-β-Induced Pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s Disease, Advanced Science, February 5, 2025, Read More

He, S., Xu, Z., & Han, X. Lipidome disruption in Alzheimer’s disease brain: detection, pathological mechanisms, and therapeutic implications, Molecular Neurodegeneration, January 27, 2025, Read More

Ma, X., Prokopenko, D., Wang, N., Aikawa, T., Choi, Y., Zhang, C., Lei, D., Ren, Y., Kawatani, K., Starling, S. C., Perkerson, R. B., Roy, B., Quintero, A. C., Parsons, T. M., Pan, Y., Li, Z., Wang, M., Bao, H., Han, X., Bu, G., Tanzi, R. E., Kanekiyo, T. Alzheimer’s disease risk ABCA7 p.A696S variant disturbs the microglial response to amyloid pathology in mice, Neurobiology of Disease, January 27, 2025, Read More

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