Xiulei Mo, PhD
Xiulei Mo, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology in the Emory University School of Medicine. His laboratory’s research focus on understanding and targeting the difficult tumor suppressor genes in cancer. Dr. Mo recently received an NCI R37 MERIT Award entitled “Discovery of small molecule mutant SMAD4-PPI inducers”. Dr. Mo is a recipient of Career Enhancement Program (CEP) Award of NCI-Emory Lung Cancer SPORE Program, and a key investigator of Project 2 of NCI-Emory Lung Cancer P01 Program.
Dr. Mo received his Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Peking University in China and attended graduate school at Auburn University, studying the structural-functional relationship of melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) under the direction of Dr. Ya-Xiong Tao. After obtaining his Ph.D., Dr. Mo joined Dr. Haian Fu’s lab at Emory University to do a post-doctoral fellowship studying protein-protein interactions in cancer. Later, Dr. Mo was promoted to Instructor and then Assistant Professor.
Our overarching goal is to understand tumor suppressor genes biology aiming towards clinical translations through discovery of biomarkers, targets and perturbagens. We are interested in bridging the vast cancer genomic landscape with the unmet clinical need by deciphering the intricate cellular signaling circuitry underlying cancer initiation, progression, and therapeutic response. We utilize multidisciplinary approaches including development of next-generation protein-protein interaction (PPI) detection technologies, biological interrogation of oncogenic PPIs, and chemical probe campaign towards PPI-directed drug discovery. One current federal-funded project is to develop small molecule drugs to “Fixing Humpty Dumpty in cancer cells”, using SMAD4 as a case study.