Name:Chao Xu
Address:School of Life Sciences, 

University of Science and Technology of China
Tel:+86-551-63600061
E-mail:xuchaor@ustc.edu.cn
EDUCATION AND RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
2000B.Sc.  Biology, School of Life Sciences
2005Ph.D.  Biochemistry and molecular biology, School of Life Sciences
2006-2008Postdoc, Dr. Georges Mer’s lab, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, USA
2009-2015Postdoc, Dr. Jinrong Min’s Lab, SGC-Toronto
2016-PresentProfessor, School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China
RESEARCH INTERESTS
My research focuses on disease relevant protein complexes and protein-DNA complexes in epigenetics and RNA epeignetics. Epigenetics is the study of acquired changes in chromatin structure that arise independently of a change in the underlying DNA nucleotide sequence. Modificatoins of DNA, histone and RNA regulate the eukaryotic gene expression at different layers. Abnormal regulation of gene expression lead to a number of diseases including cancer, autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases. We utilize structural biology, molecular biology and chemical biology to explore the molecular mechanism underlining the complicated regulatory mechanisms and to identify small molecules to treat human diseases.
REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS
1.#Wang X., #Zeng C., #Liao S., Zhu Z., Zhang J., Tu X., Yao X., *Feng X., *Guang S., *Xu C. Molecular basis for PICS-mediated piRNA biogenesis and cell division. Nat. Commun. 12, 5595. (2021).
2.#Chen X., #Liao S., #Makaros Y., Guo Q., Zhu Z., Krizelman R., Dahan K., Tu X., Yao X., *Koren I., *Xu C. Molecular basis for arginine C-terminal degron recognition by Cul2 FEM1 E3 ligase. Nat. Chem. Biol. 17,254-262. (2021).
3.#Liao S., #Rajendraprasad G., #Wang N., Eibes S., Gao J., Yu H., Wu G., Tu X., *Huang H., *Barisic M., *Xu C. Molecular basis of vasohibins-mediated detyrosination and its impact on spindle function and mitosis. Cell Res. 29,533-547. (2019).
4.#Zeng C., #Weng C., #Wang X.,#Yan Y., Li W.,Xu D., Hong M., Liao S., Dong M., *Feng X.,*Xu C., *Guang S. Functional proteomics identified a PICS complex required for piRNA maturation and chromosome segregation. Cell. Rep. 27, 3561-3572.e3 (2019).
5.#Guo Q., #Liao S.,#Kwiatkowski S., Tomaka W., Yu H., Wu G., Tu X., Min J., *Drozak J., *Xu C. Structural insights into SETD3-mediated histidine methylation on β-actin. eLife 8: e43676. (2019).
6.Liao S., *Sun H., *Xu C. YTH Domain: A Family of N6-methyladenosine (m6A) Readers. Genomics,Proteomics & Bioinformatics. 16, 99-107. (2018).
7.*Xu C., Ishikawa H., Izumikawa K., Li L., He H., Nobe Y., Yamauchi Y., Shahjee M.H., Wu X., Yu Y., Isobe T., Takahashi N., *Min J. Structural insights into Gemin5-guided selection of pre-snRNAs for snRNP assembly. Genes Dev. 30, 2376-2390. (2016).
8.*#Xu C., #Wang X., #Liu K., Roundtree I., Tempel W., Li Y., Lu Z., *He C., *Min J. Structural basis for selective binding of m6A RNA by the YTHDC1 YTH domain. Nat. Chem. Biol. 10, 927-929. (2014). (Recommended by Faculty of 1000).
9.#Ni Z., #Xu C., Guo X., Hunter G., Kuznetsova O., Tempel W., Marcon E., Zhong G., Guo H., Kuo W., Li J., Young P., Olsen J., Wan C., Loppnau P., Bakkouri M., Senisterra, G., He H., Huang H., Sidhu S., Emili A., Murphy S., Mosley A., Arrowsmith C., *Min J., *Greenblatt J. RPRD1A and RPRD1B Serve as RNA Polymerase II Carboxyl-Terminal Domain Scaffolds to Recruit RPAP2 for Serine 5 Dephosphorylation. Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol. 21, 686-695. (2014).
10.#Xu Y., #Xu C., #Kato A., Tempel W., Abreu J.C., Bian C., Hu Y., Hu D., Zhao B., Cerovina T., Diao J., Wu F., He H.H., Cui Q., Clark E., Ma C., Barbara A., Veenstra G.J.C., Xu G., Kaiser U.B., Liu X.S., Sugrue S.P., He X., *Min J., *Kato Y., *Shi Y.G. Tet3 CXXC Domain and Dioxygenase Activity Cooperatively Regulate Key Genes for XenopusEye and Neural Development. Cell 151, 1200-1213. (2012).
11.#Xu C., #Jin J., Bian C., Lam R., Tian R., Weist R., You L., Nie J., Bochkarev A., Tempel W., Tan C., Wasney G., Vedadi M., Gish G., Arrowsmith C., Pawson T., Yang X., *Min J. Sequence-specific Recognition of a PxLPxI/L Motif by the Ankyrin-repeat Tumbler Lock. Sci. Signal. 5, ra39. (2012). (cover article).
12.#Bian, C., #Xu C., #Ruan J., #Lee K., #Burke T., Tempel W., Barsyte D., Li J., Wu M., Zhou B., Fleharty B.E., Paulson A., Allali-Hassani A., Zhou J., Mer G., Grant P., *Workman J.L., *Zang J., *Min J. Structural Basis of Sgf29 Tandem Tudor Domains Selectively Binding Methylated Histone H3K4 to Regulate Enzymatic Activity of the SAGA Complex. EMBO J. 30, 2849-2842. (2011).
13.#Xu C., #Bian C., Lam R., Dong A. *Min J. Structural Basis of Selective Binding of Nonmethylated CpG islands by the CXXC Domain of CFP1. Nat. Commun. 2: 227. (2011).
14.#Xu C., #Bian C., #Yang W., Galka M., Ouyang H., Chen C., Qiu W., Liu H., Jones A., MacKenzie F., Pan P., *Li S., *Wang H., *Min J. Binding of different histone marks differentially regulates the activity and specificity of polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2). Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 107, 19266-19271. (2010).

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