Xin Lu
FRS FMedSci
Professor of Cancer Biology
- Director, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Oxford Branch
- Theme Lead, Multimodal Cancer Therapies Theme, NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre
- Director, Oxford Centre for Early Cancer Detection
The main goal of our research is to identify molecular mechanisms that control cellular plasticity and suppress tumour growth. Cells are able to change their characteristics and cell fate in response to external signals. This ability to change – cellular plasticity – underlies cancer initiation, metastasis and resistance to therapy. We are particularly interested in ‘guardians’ of plasticity in epithelial cells, from which over 80% of human tumours originate. We have a long-standing interest in the tumour suppressor p53 and the ASPP family of proteins (Apoptosis-Stimulating Protein of p53; Ankyrin repeats, SH3 domain and Proline rich sequence containing proteins), which have several roles including regulation of p53.
Our current areas of interest include: understanding how selective transcription is controls cell fate; identifying regulators of cellular plasticity in upper gastrointestinal cancer initiation and metastasis (particularly oesophageal cancer and gastric cancer); and understanding the influence of infection on cell plasticity and cancer (particularly Helicobacter pylori and Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) infection).
Recent publications
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ASPP2 maintains the integrity of mechanically stressed pseudostratified epithelia during morphogenesis
Journal article
Royer C. et al, (2022), Nature Communications, 13
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Multiscale Methods for Signal Selection in Single-Cell Data.
Journal article
Hoekzema RS. et al, (2022), Entropy (Basel, Switzerland), 24