Xianfa Xie is presently on sabbatical from Virginia State University, where he is both an Associate Professor in Biology and Director of the newly established Genomics and Bioinformatics Program. His research exaamines a variety of questions including the degradation of cellulosic plant materials by microbial communities in soil, termites, and rumens using a metagenomic approach, cancer epigenomics and CRISPR-based epigenetic therapy treatment, and recently the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 virus using a phylogenetic network approach. However, during his sabbatical and tennure with the Edwards lab, Xianfa is focused on a research collaborations in the US and abroad on the biodiversity and adaptation in the Dry Diagonal region of Brazil; with this group in particular, he is focused on the bioluminescent mushroom species found in the different biomes of Brazil using a comparative genomic and transcriptomic approach.