In 1982, Xiao received a BS in pharmaceutical chemistry from the Shanghai Medical University School of Pharmacy. He received a MS in Biochemistry in 1985 from Wuhan University in China and a PhD in Biology in 1992 from the University of Pittsburgh.

Xiao’s work on muscular dystrophy, especially the Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, has received international recognition. His paper published in 2000 on gene therapy for DMD was broadly covered by the media, and his groundbreaking work has been developed into the first gene therapy phase I clinical trial for DMD in the United States. In 2005, his paper on systemic gene delivery for muscular dystrophy was recognized by the National Institutes for Health as a major scientific advancement, and was selected as one of the 100 top scientific stories in 2005 by Discover magazine.

As an independent investigator, Xiao has published 58 peer-reviewed papers from 1998-2006. He is the inventor or co-inventor of 12 issued or pending US patents, and is also a member on a number of study sections at the National Institutes of Health.