Senior Associate Scientist, Chemotaxis Signal Section
Specialty(s): Allergy and Immunology, Infectious Disease, Pathology, Medical Microbiology
Education:
Ph.D., Tsukuba University, Japan
B.S., M.S., Harbin Normal University, China
Biography
Dr. Xuehua Xu obtained her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biology from Harbin Normal University, China, and her Ph.D. in biotechnology from Tsukuba University, Japan. Starting in 2002, Dr. Xu had her postdoctoral training mentored by Dr. Tian Jin at the Laboratory of Immunogenetics (LIG), NIAID/NIH. Dr. Xu focused on developing and applying state-of-the-art imaging technologies to monitor the signaling network of GPCR-mediated chemotaxis in the model organism Dictyostelium discoideum. Interplay between computational simulation and experimental verification allowed her to propose a novel model, specifically a local inhibitory model, in GPCR-mediated chemotaxis to identify new components and novel signaling pathways essential for chemotaxis. In 2006, she was recruited as an assistant professor at the Georgetown University School of Medicine. She further expanded her research from the model organism to mammalian neutrophils and breast cancer. In 2010, she was recruited to NIH as a staff scientist in Dr. Jin’s group. She was promoted to Associate Scientist in 2019 and Senior Scientist in 2021.