Xu was born in Shandong province, China. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in Hunan University, and master’s degree in Lanzhou University. She moved to Paris for her Ph.D. degree at University Paris-Sud (CNRS-ICSN), where he worked with Prof. Arnaud Voituriez and Prof. Vincent Gandon on Gold(I) asymmetric catalysis. In 2020, she joined the Zuo’s group as a postdoc to work on the enzymatic photocatalysis.