Cancer Biology  http://www.gbs.uab.edu  http://www.uab.edu/graduate  Back to Main

Faculty Detail    
Name JIA XU
Assistant Professor		  
Campus Address KAUL 768 Zip 0024
Phone  (205) 996-4198
E-mail  xuj@uab.edu
Other websites Xu Lab
     

Education
Graduate  Wuhan University    2006  M.S. 
Graduate  University of Texas-M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and Health Science Center at Houston    2012  Ph.D. 


Faculty Appointment(s)
Appointment Type Department Division Rank
Primary  Genetics Research Div  Genetics Research Div Assistant Professor
Secondary  Womens Health  Womens Health Assistant Professor
Center  Comprehensive Cancer Center  Comprehensive Cancer Center Assistant Professor
Center  Ctr for Clinical & Translational Sci  Ctr for Clinical & Translational Sci Assistant Professor
Center  UAB Immunology Institute  UAB Immunology Institute Assistant Professor

Graduate Biomedical Sciences Affiliations
Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics Program 
Cancer Biology 
Cell, Molecular, & Developmental Biology 
Cellular and Molecular Biology Program 
Genetics and Genomic Sciences 
Genetics, Genomics and Bioinformatics 
Hughes Med-Grad Fellowship Program 
Integrative Biomedical Sciences 
Integrative Genetics Graduate Program 
Molecular and Cellular Pathology Program 

Biographical Sketch 
2022 – Present, Assistant Professor, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL ; 2020 – 2022, Instructor, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY ; 2015 – 2020, Postdoctoral Fellow, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY ; 2012 – 2015, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Texas-M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX ; 2006 – 2012, Ph.D. Cancer Biology, University of Texas-M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX ;

Society Memberships
Organization Name Position Held Org Link
American Association of Cancer Research  Member  https://www.aacr.org  
American Society for Investigative Pathology  Member  https://www.asip.org 
 



Research/Clinical Interest
Title
Investigating the mechanisms by which oncogenic signaling pathways impact tumor cell division, growth and metastasis
Description
The Xu lab is broadly interested in understanding cancer development driven by genetic mutations in patients. How do cell division and chromosome segregation altered by the oncogenic signaling pathway? How to target cancer aneuploidy and chromosome instability (CIN)? We employ multidisciplinary approaches to tackle these fundamental questions central to cell biology and human health. We are particularly interested in targeting the three most frequently altered signaling pathways in human cancers, such as PI3K/AKT/PTEN/mTOR pathway, RAS/RAF signaling pathway, and TGF-beta pathway. Our disease focus is solid tumors with a particular emphasis on breast cancer and prostate cancer. We are also actively engaged in translating basic mechanistic insights to the development of novel therapeutics, such as PROTAC degraded and AAV gene therapy.

Selected Publications 
Publication PUBMEDID
Xufen Yu*, Jia Xu*, Yudao Shen, Kaitlyn M. Cahuzac, Kwang-su Park, Brandon Dale, Jing Liu, Ramon E. Parsons, and Jian Jin. Discovery of potent, selective, and in vivo efficacious AKT kinase Protein Degraders via Structure-Activity Relationship Studies. J. Med. Chem. 2022, 65, 4, 3644–3666, *co-first author  35119851 
Xufen Yu*, Jia Xu*, Ling Xie, Li Wang, Yudao Shen, Kaitlyn M. Cahuzac, Xian Chen, Jing Liu, Ramon E. Parsons, and Jian Jin. Design, Synthesis and Evaluation of Potent, Selective and Bioavailable AKT Kinase Degraders. J. Med. Chem. 2021, 64, 24, 18054–18081, *co-first author  34855399 
Jia Xu*, Xufen Yu*, Tiphaine C. Martin, Ankita Bansal, Kakit Cheung, Li Wang, Elias Stratikopoulos, Kaitlyn M. Cahuzac, Ling Xie, Abigail Lubin, Royce Zhou, Yao Shen, Ruifang Qiao, Poulikos Poulikakos, Xian Chen, Jing Liu, Jian Jin*, Ramon Parsons*. AKT degradation selectively inhibits the growth of PI3K/PTEN pathway mutant cancers with wild-type KRAS and BRAF by destabilizing Aurora kinase B. Cancer Discov. (2021) 11 (12): 3064–3089, *co-first author  34301793 
Royce W. Zhou, Jia Xu, Tiphaine C. Martin, Alexis L. Zachem, John He, Sait Ozturk, Deniz Demircioglu, Ankita Bansal, Andrew P. Trotta, Bruno Giotti, Berkley Gryder, Yao Shen, Xuewei Wu, Saul Carcamo, Kaitlyn Bosch, Benjamin Hopkins, Alexander Tsankov, Randolph Steinhagen, Drew R. Jones, John Asara, Jerry E. Chipuk, Rachel Brody, Steven Itzkowitz, Iok In Christine Chio, Dan Hasson, Emily Bernstein & Ramon E. Parsons. A local tumor microenvironment acquired super-enhancer induces an oncogenic driver in colorectal carcinoma. Nat Commun. 2022 Oct 17;13(1):6041. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-33377-8.  36253360 
Xufen Yu*, Jia Xu*, Kaitlyn M. Cahuzac, Ling Xie, Yudao Shen, Xian Chen, Jing Liu*, Ramon E. Parsons*, and Jian Jin*. Novel Allosteric Inhibitor-Derived AKT Proteolysis Targeting Chimeras (PROTACs) Enable Potent and Selective AKT Degradation in KRAS/BRAF Mutant Cells. J. Med. Chem. 2022, 65, 20, 14237–14260. *co-first author  36197750 
Kyrie Pappas, Jia Xu, Sakellarios Zairis, Lois Resnick-Silverman, Francesco Abate, Nicole Steinbach, Sait Ozturk, Lao H. Saal, Tao Su, Pamela Cheung, Hank Schmidt,l, Stuart Aaronson, Hanina Hibshoosh, James Manfredi, Raul Rabadan, Ramon Parsons. p53 maintains baseline expression of multiple tumor suppressor genes. Mol. Cancer Res. 2017;15(8):1051-1062  28483946 
Jia Xu*, Sunil Acharya*, Xiao Wang, Shalini Jain, Hai Wang, Qingling Zhang, Chia-Chi Chang, Joseph Bower, Banu Arun, Victoria Seewaldt, & Dihua Yu. Downregulation of GLUT4 Contributes to Effective Intervention of Estrogen Receptor-Negative/HER2-overexpressing Early Stage Breast Disease Progression by Lapatinib. Am. J. Cancer Res. 2016;6(5):981-995, *co-first author  27293993 
Chia-Chi Chang, Chenyu Zhang, Qingling Zhang, Ozgur Sahin, Hai Wang, Jia Xu, Yi Xiao, Jian Zhang, Sumaiyah K. Rehman, Ping Li, Mien-Chie Hung, Fariba Behbod, Dihua Yu. Upregulation of Lactate Dehydrogenase A by 14-3-3ζ Leads to Increased Glycolysis Critical for Breast Cancer Initiation and Progression. Oncotarget, 2016 May 2. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.9136  27150057 
Jia Xu, Sunil Acharya, Ozgur Sahin, Qingling Zhang, Yohei Saito, Jun Yao, Hai Wang, Ping Li, Lin Zhang, Frank J Lowery, Wen-Ling Kuo, Yi Xiao, Joe Ensor, Aysegul A Sahin, Xiang H.-F. Zhang, Mien-chie Hung, Jitao David Zhang, & Dihua Yu. 14-3-3 zeta turns TGF-beta’s function from tumor suppressor to metastasis promoter in breast cancer by contextual changes of Smad partners from p53 to Gli2. Cancer Cell. 2015 Feb 9;27(2):177-92.  25670079 
Jia Xu*, Christopher L. Neal*, Ping Li, Seiji Mori, Jun Yang, Nina N. Neal, Shannon L. Wyszomierski, Mien-Chie Hung, & Dihua Yu. Overexpression of 14-3-3zeta in cancer cells activates PI3K via binding the p85 regulatory subunit. Oncogene. 2012. 31, 897–906. * co-first author  21743495 
Jia Xu*, Priya B Shetty*, Weiwei Feng, Carol Chenault, Robert C Bast, Jr., Jean-Pierre J Issa, Susan Hilsenbeck, and Yinhua Yu. Methylation of HIN-1, RASSF1A, RIL and CDH13 in breast cancer is associated with clinical characteristics, but only RASSF1A methylation is associated with outcome. BMC cancer. 2012 Jun 13; 12(1):243. * co-first author  22695491 
Anupam Kumar, Jia Xu, Bokyung Sung, Santosh Kumar, Dihua Yu, Bharat Aggarwal, Kapil Mehta.(2012) Evidence that GTP-binding domain but not catalytic domain of transglutaminase 2 is essential for epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in mammary epithelial cells. Breast Cancer Res. 2012 Jan 6; 14(1):R4.  22225906 
Anupam Kumar, Hui Gao, Jia Xu, James Reuben, Dihua Yu, and Kapil Mehta. Evidence that Aberrant Expression of Tissue Transglutaminase Promotes Stem Cell Characteristics in Mammary Epithelial Cells. PLos One 2011;6(6):e20701. Epub 2011 Jun 8.  21687668 
Weiwei Feng, Rosaria Orlandi, Naiqing Zhao, Maria Luisa Carcangiu, Elda Tagliabue, Jia Xu, Robert C. Bast Jr. and Yinhua Yu. Tumor suppressor genes are frequently methylated in lymph node metastases of breast cancers. BMC Cancer 2010, 10:378.  20642860 
Anupam Kumar, Jia Xu, Samuel Brady, Hui Gao, Dihua Yu, James Reuben and Kapil Mehta. Transglutaminase 2 induces epithelial to mesenchymal transition and promotes tumorigenic phenotype in mammary epithelial cells. PLos One 2010, 5(10):e13390.  20967228 
Shau-Hsuan Li, Valerie S. Hawthorne, Christopher L. Neal, Sartaj Sanghera, Jia Xu, Jun Yang, Hua Guo, Patricia S. Steeg and Dihua Yu. Upregulation of neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin by ErbB2 through nuclear factor-kappaB activation. Cancer Research 2009;69(24):9163–8  19951994 
Chuanfeng Liu, Fuming Yi, Junping Wang, Xiaochun Wang, Hong Jiang, Jia Xu and Yuanyang Hu. (2006) Isolation and RNA1 nucleotide sequence determination of a new insect nodavirus from Pieris rapae larvae in Wuhan city, China. Virus Research 120 (2006) 28–35.  16780981 
 

Keywords
AURKB, PI3K/AKT/PTEN pathway, Mitosis, Cancer Biology, Cancer signaling pathway, PROTAC, AAV gene therapy