Xue-Jun (June) Kong, MD
Director and Principal Investigator, Synapse Lab; AP-Scientist, Boston Children's Hospital
Dr. Xue-Jun (June) Kong is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an Attending Physician in Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She founded and directed the Synapse Lab for Autism Research at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) prior to joining Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) as AP-Scientist/Research Investigator. Over the past decade, Dr. Kong has led an interdisciplinary research team that has completed multiple projects focused on the early diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) through biomarker identification, including microbiome profiling, eye tracking, EEG, brain imaging, and autoimmunity markers. She has also successfully conducted several pioneering clinical trials to explore innovative treatments for ASD, such as probiotics, oxytocin, and vagal nerve stimulation. Dr. Kong’s research is particularly centered on understanding the roles of gut-brain axis, oxytocin signaling, and brain connectivity in ASD pathogenesis and phenotypes. Her team aims to identify common hallmarks of ASD and uncover pathways for potential therapeutic interventions. Her work at MGH resulted in six patents and one filed copyright, with three technologies successfully transferred to industry, contributing significantly to autism early diagnosis and treatment. Dr. Kong also established SYNAPSE primary care co-production model, the East Meets West protocol, integrated medical-educational models and ASD talent development protocols, aimed at improving ASD patient care and advancing patient-oriented clinical research. Dr. Kong has published more than 70 peer reviewed articles, she also serves as Editor-in-Chief of “North American Journal of Medicine & Science” and Translator-in-Chief of “Frontiers in Autism Research -New Horizons for Diagnosis and Treatment” into Chinese (591000 words) published by People’s Medical Publishing House, China 2017, ISBN 978-7-117-24470-I/R.24471. In addition, she chairs International Medicine Transformation (IMT) Initiative, and To Cure Autism Institute. She is widely recognized as a leading physician-scientist in the field of autism research.
