Xiaowei Xu

About

Xiaowei Xu, MD, PhD, is the Founders Professor in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. He serves as an Attending Physician in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and is a member of the Abramson Cancer Center. His research expertise includes developing CAR gamma delta T cell and extracellular vesicle-based immunotherapies for melanoma and other skin conditions. His clinical expertise encompasses dermatopathology, pigmented lesions, and vasculitis. Dr. Xu has contributed to the understanding of tumor immunosuppression mechanisms, including the role of exosomal PD-L1 in mediating tumor immune evasion, and has worked on signaling pathways involved in acquired drug resistance in melanoma. His work involves engineering immune cells and extracellular vesicles to target tumors and modulate immune responses, with a focus on translational and clinical research in cancer immunotherapy.

Research topics

• Biology
• Cell biology
• Information Retrieval
• Biochemistry
• Cancer research
• Computer Science
• Dermatology
• Medical physics
• Immunology
• Pathology

Selected publications

• Developmental Relationships of Four Exhausted CD8+ T Cell Subsets Reveals Underlying Transcriptional and Epigenetic Landscape Control Mechanisms

  Immunity · 2020 · 1028 citations

  DOI

• Pathological response and survival with neoadjuvant therapy in melanoma: a pooled analysis from the International Neoadjuvant Melanoma Consortium (INMC)

  Nature Medicine · 2021-02-01 · 428 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Tumor-infiltrating mast cells are associated with resistance to anti-PD-1 therapy

  Nature Communications · 2021-01-12 · 184 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Anti-PD-1 therapy is used as a front-line treatment for many cancers, but mechanistic insight into this therapy resistance is still lacking. Here we generate a humanized (Hu)-mouse melanoma model by injecting fetal liver-derived CD34 + cells and implanting autologous thymus in immune-deficient NOD- scid IL2Rγ null (NSG) mice. Reconstituted Hu-mice are challenged with HLA-matched melanomas and treated with anti-PD-1, which results in restricted tumor growth but not complete regression. T…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A stromal Integrated Stress Response activates perivascular cancer-associated fibroblasts to drive angiogenesis and tumour progression

  Nature Cell Biology · 2022 · 169 citations

  fibroblasts displayed significant defects in collagen biosynthesis and deposition and a reduced ability to support angiogenesis. Mechanistically, ATF4 regulates the expression of the Col1a1 gene and levels of glycine and proline, the major amino acids of collagen. Analyses of human melanoma and pancreatic tumours revealed a strong correlation between ATF4 and collagen levels. Our findings establish stromal ATF4 as a key driver of CAF functionality, malignant progression and metastasis.

  DOI

• HRS phosphorylation drives immunosuppressive exosome secretion and restricts CD8+ T-cell infiltration into tumors

  Nature Communications · 2022 · 83 citations

  immunosuppressive exosomes, and suggests HRS phosphorylation blockade as a potential strategy to improve the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Targeting HSP70 for MelanomaTherapy

  NIH · $69.3M · 2008–2025

• Developmental Research Program

  NIH · $17.8M · 2021

• NIH Grant R01AR054593

  NIH · $1.9M · 2015

Frequent coauthors

• Jing Wang

  765 shared

• Jing Wang

  255 shared

• Meenhard Herlyn

  207 shared

• Géza Ács

  171 shared

• T Pasha

  Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania

  155 shared

• Lynn M. Schuchter

  University of Pennsylvania

  131 shared

• Ravi K. Amaravadi

  120 shared

• Giorgos C. Karakousis

  93 shared

Similar researchers at University of Pennsylvania

• John Q. Trojanowskih-296
• Craig B. Thompsonh-277
• Daniel J Raderh-236