Biography:Xin Lu

Xin Lu FRS
Scientific career
Thesis URL

Xin Lu FRS is a Professor of Cancer Biology and Director of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at the University of Oxford. She is known for her discovery of and research on the ASPP family of proteins.

Education

Xin Lu completed her undergraduate education in Biochemistry at Sichuan University in 1982 and her master's degree in Cell and Molecular Biology at the Cancer Institute, Peking Union Medical College & Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences in 1985. She moved to University College London (UCL) to complete her PhD studies supervised by Birgit Lane, and published her thesis A study of intermediate filament formation using retrovirus-mediated gene transfer in 1991.

Research and Career

In 1993, after a short postdoc with David Lane at Dundee University, she joined the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR), which was based at St Mary's Hospital, Imperial College London and set up her own research group. In 2004 Lu was appointed Director of Research at Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research London Branch, and Professor of Cancer Biology at University College London. In 2007 she moved the institute to Oxford.

Honours and awards

• Fellow of the Royal Society, (2020).
• Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (2013)
• Member of the Academia Europaea (2022)
• Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (2011)
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (2011 - 2022)
• Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists (2007 - 2022)

Notable works

Lu, X (1993). "Differential induction of transcriptionally active p53 following UV or lonizing radiation: Defects in chromosome instability syndromes?". Cell 75 (4): 765–778. doi:10.1016/0092-8674(93)90496-d. PMID 8242748. 

Hsieh, Jung-Kuang; Chan, Florence S.G; O’Connor, Daniel J; Mittnacht, Sibylle; Zhong, Shan; Lu, Xin (1999). "RB Regulates the Stability and the Apoptotic Function of p53 via MDM2". Molecular Cell 3 (2): 181–193. doi:10.1016/s1097-2765(00)80309-3. PMID 10078201. 

Samuels-Lev, Yardena; O'Connor, Daniel J.; Bergamaschi, Daniele; Trigiante, Giuseppe; Hsieh, Jung-Kuang; Zhong, Shan; Campargue, Isabelle; Naumovski, Louie et al. (2001). "ASPP Proteins Specifically Stimulate the Apoptotic Function of p53". Molecular Cell 8 (4): 781–794. doi:10.1016/s1097-2765(01)00367-7. PMID 11684014. 

Lu, Min; Zak, Jaroslav; Chen, Shuo; Sanchez-Pulido, Luis; Severson, David T.; Endicott, Jane; Ponting, Chris P.; Schofield, Christopher J. et al. (2014). "A Code for RanGDP Binding in Ankyrin Repeats Defines a Nuclear Import Pathway". Cell 157 (5): 1130–1145. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2014.05.006. PMID 24855949. 

Bergamaschi, Daniele; Samuels, Yardena; O'Neil, Nigel J.; Trigiante, Giuseppe; Crook, Tim; Hsieh, Jung-Kuang; O'Connor, Daniel J.; Zhong, Shan et al. (2003). "iASPP oncoprotein is a key inhibitor of p53 conserved from worm to human" (in En). Nature Genetics 33 (2): 162–167. doi:10.1038/ng1070. ISSN 1546-1718. PMID 12524540. 

Notari, Mario; Hu, Ying; Sutendra, Gopinath; Dedeić, Zinaida; Lu, Min; Dupays, Laurent; Yavari, Arash; Carr, Carolyn A. et al. (2015-03-03). "iASPP, a previously unidentified regulator of desmosomes, prevents arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC)-induced sudden death". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112 (9): E973–E981. doi:10.1073/pnas.1408111112. PMID 25691752. Bibcode: 2015PNAS..112E.973N. 

Wang, Yihua; Bu, Fangfang; Royer, Christophe; Serres, Sébastien; Larkin, James R.; Soto, Manuel Sarmiento; Sibson, Nicola R.; Salter, Victoria et al. (2014). "ASPP2 controls epithelial plasticity and inhibits metastasis through β-catenin-dependent regulation of ZEB1" (in En). Nature Cell Biology 16 (11): 1092–1104. doi:10.1038/ncb3050. ISSN 1476-4679. PMID 25344754. 

Turnquist, Casmir; Wang, Yihua; Severson, David T.; Zhong, Shan; Sun, Bin; Ma, Jingyi; Constantinescu, Stefan N.; Ansorge, Olaf et al. (2014-07-08). "STAT1-induced ASPP2 transcription identifies a link between neuroinflammation, cell polarity, and tumor suppression". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111 (27): 9834–9839. doi:10.1073/pnas.1407898111. PMID 24958857. Bibcode: 2014PNAS..111.9834T. 

Lu, Min; Breyssens, Hilde; Salter, Victoria; Zhong, Shan; Hu, Ying; Baer, Caroline; Ratnayaka, Indrika; Sullivan, Alex et al. (2013). "Restoring p53 Function in Human Melanoma Cells by Inhibiting MDM2 and Cyclin B1/CDK1-Phosphorylated Nuclear iASPP". Cancer Cell 23 (5): 618–633. doi:10.1016/j.ccr.2013.03.013. PMID 23623661. 

Wang, Yihua; Wang, Xiao Dan; Lapi, Eleonora; Sullivan, Alexandra; Jia, Wei; He, You-Wen; Ratnayaka, Indrika; Zhong, Shan et al. (2012-08-14). "Autophagic activity dictates the cellular response to oncogenic RAS". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109 (33): 13325–13330. doi:10.1073/pnas.1120193109. PMID 22847423. Bibcode: 2012PNAS..10913325W. 

Notari, Mario; Hu, Ying; Koch, Sofia; Lu, Min; Ratnayaka, Indrika; Zhong, Shan; Baer, Caroline; Pagotto, Anna et al. (2011-10-04). "Inhibitor of apoptosis-stimulating protein of p53 (iASPP) prevents senescence and is required for epithelial stratification". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108 (40): 16645–16650. doi:10.1073/pnas.1102292108. PMID 21930934. Bibcode: 2011PNAS..10816645N. 

Slee, Elizabeth A.; Benassi, Barbara; Goldin, Robert; Zhong, Shan; Ratnayaka, Indrika; Blandino, Giovanni; Lu, Xin (2010-11-09). "Phosphorylation of Ser312 contributes to tumor suppression by p53 in vivo". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107 (45): 19479–19484. doi:10.1073/pnas.1005165107. PMID 20962274. Bibcode: 2010PNAS..10719479S.