|
|
|
|
|
Xu, Wei
 Wei Xu, PhD
Assistant Professor
Research Area
Breast cancer prevention and treatment using environmental and nutritional estrogenic compounds. Developed assays for identification of novel natural estrogenic ligands. Molecular mechanism of transcription activation of ERa and ERb by environmental estrogenic ligands. Epigenetic changes in breast cancer and biomarker discovery for breast cancer diagnosis and prognosis.
Home Dept: Oncology
Affiliated Depts: Molecular & Environmental Toxicology
Address
Department of Oncology
McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research
School of Medicine and Public Health
421A McArdle Laboratory
1400 University Avenue
Madison, WI 53706-1599
Contact: 608-262-9834 - Email
Awards
2008 - Shaw Scientist Research Award
Research
Our laboratory is exploring the protective roles of environmental and nutritional estrogenic compounds in mammals for breast cancer prevention and treatment. Estrogen receptors (ERs) exist in two forms, ERa and ERb, which have opposing roles in cell proliferation. Estrogenic compounds can control balance between mammary cell proliferation and differentiation via stimulating the formation of different forms of ER dimers. We have developed the Bioluminescent Resonance Energy Transfer (BRET) assays for detecting in vivo homodimerization and heterodimerization of ERa and ERb induced by estrogenic compounds. These assays have been optimized for high throughput screening, which allow us to identify novel estrogenic compounds capable of differentially modulating these dimer forms. Biological functions of these estrogenic compounds are currently being investigated in cell-based and breast cancer mouse models. Furthermore, the compounds will be utilized in gene expression microarrays for identification of clinically relevant ERb-directed biomarkers for breast cancer diagnosis and prognosis. We have also employed biochemical and functional genomic approaches, as well as mouse genetics to decipher the significance of histone arginine methylation in tumor prevention, thereby facilitating the rational design of novel chemotherapy drugs by targeting the epigenome in breast cancer.
Publications- Powell E., Wang Y., Shapiro D.J., Xu, W. (2010) Differential requirements of Hsp90 and DNA for the formation of estrogen receptor homodimers and heterodimers. J. Biological Chemistry, 285: 16125-16134.
- Kuhn, P., Xu, Q., Cline, E., Zhang, D., Ge, Y. and Xu, W. (2009) Delineating Anapheles Gambiae Coactivator Associated Arginine Methyltransferase 1 (AgCARM1) Automethylation Using Top-Down High Resolution Tandem Mass Spectrometry. Protein Science, 18: 1272-1280.
- Kuhn, P., Xu, W. Nuclear receptor coregulators and beyond. (2009) Book Chapter: Progress in Molecular Biology and Translational Science, Volume 87, 297-340.
- Nofsinger, R. R., Li, P., Hong, S.-H., Jonker, J. W., Barish, G. D., Ying, H., Cheng, S.-y., LeBlanc, M., Xu, W., Pei, L., Kang, Y.-J., Nelson, M., Downes, M., Yu, R. T., Olefsky, J. M., Lee, C.-H., and Evans, R. M. SMRT Repression of Nuclear Receptors Controls the Adipogenic Set Point and Metabolic Homeostasis. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 105: 20021-20026, 2008
- Powell E. and Xu W.Intermolecular interactions identify ligand-selective activity of estrogen receptor á/â dimers. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA; 2008 Dec 2;105(48):19012-7
- Zhu, Y., Zhu, Y., and Xu, W. EzArray: A Web-based Highly Automated Affymetrix Expression Array Data Management and Analysis System. BMC Bioinformatics, 9:46, 2008.
- Higashimoto, K., Kuhn, P., Desai, D., Cheng, X., and Xu, W. Phosphorylation-mediated Inactivation of Coactivator-associated Arginine Methyltransferase 1. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 104: 12318-12323, 2007.
- Xu, W. Nuclear Receptor Coactivators: the Key to Unlock Chromatin. Biochem. Cell Biol., 83: 418-428, 2005.
- Xu, W., Cho, H., Kadam, S., Banayo, E. M., Anderson, S., Yates III, J. R., Emerson, B. M., and Evans, R. M. A Methylation-Mediator Complex in Hormone Signaling. Genes Dev., 18: 144-156, 2004.
- Xu, W., Chen, H., Du, K., Asahara, H., Tini, M., Emerson, B. M., Montminy, M., and Evans, R. M. A Transcriptional Switch Mediated by Co-Factor Methylation. Science, 294: 2507-2511.
Check PubMed for other publications by Wei Xu
|
|
|
|
