Principle Investigator

School of Basic Medical Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University

E-mail: xuxl@hznu.edu.cn

Education

B.S. in Biology               2000 - 2004       School of Life Science, Lanzhou University, China

Ph.D. in Biophysics      2004 - 2008       School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, China

Research Associate       2009 - 2013       The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA

Principal Investigator   2013 - present    School of Basic Medical Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University

Research Experiences

  Principal Investigator (School of Basic Medical Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University) 

◦ The photosynthesis and energy metabolism of photosynthetic bacterium

◦ Structure based enzyme engineering for bio-catalysis of fine chemicals and pharmaceutical intermediates

◦ Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase in angiogenesis and its application in therapeutics development

  Research Associate (The Scripps Research Institute, Paul Schimmel & Xiang-lei Yang lab)

◦ Non-canonical function of human seryl-tRNA synthetase in zebrafish vascular development

◦ Molecular mechanism of tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetase in tumor angiogenesis

  Ph.D. (Tsinghua University, Zihe Rao lab)

  Structural and functional studies of replication & transcription mechanisms of coronaviruses:

  ◦ Crystal structure of nsp15 and the C-terminal cytoplasmic domain of nsp4

  ◦ Structural based drug design and antivirals screening from traditional Chinese medicine

◦ Protein engineering and interaction studies of coronavirus non-structural proteins

Research funds

1.     National Natural Science Foundation of China (32171227, 2012-2025)

2.    National Natural Science Foundation of China (31870740, 2019-2022)

3.     National Natural Science Foundation of China (31570738, 2016-2019)

4.     National Natural Science Foundation of China (31400630, 2015-2017)

5.     Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (LY14C050002, 2014-2016)

6.     Key Laboratory of New Drug Discovery from Hangzhou City (2014-2017)

7.     "Top talent support program" of Hangzhou Normal University (2019-2023)

8.     HZNU Science Cultivation Grant (2018-2021)

9.     “Westlake Scholar” Personnel Plan (2013)

Honors and Awards

2021   "Young top talent" of the 10000 person plan in Zhejiang Province

2019    Second prize of National Science and Technology Progress

2019   "Young talents" program of Zhejiang Province

2018   Advanced individual of "women civilization demonstration post"

2018   "Top talent support program" of Hangzhou Normal University

2017   “131” young and middle-aged talents first level (Hangzhou Bureau of Education)

2013   “Westlake Scholar” (Hangzhou Bureau of Education)

2008   Silver Prize of the “New Excellent Person in Academic Research”, Tsinghua University

Selected publications (* represents corresponding authors)

[1] Shi Y^#, Xin Y^#, Wang C^#, Blankenship RE, Sun F*, Xu X*. Cryo-EM structures of the air-oxidized and dithionite-reduced photosynthetic alternative complex III from Roseiflexus castenholzii. Science Advances. 2020, 6(31):eaba2739.

[2] Wang C^#, Xin Y^#, Min Z, Qi J, Zhang C, Xu X*. Structural basis underlying the electron transfer features of a blue copper protein auracyanin from the photosynthetic bacterium Roseiflexus castenholzii. Photosynth Res. 2020, 143(3), 301-314.

[3] Zhang C^#, Min Z^#, Liu X^#, Wang C^#, Wang Z, Shen J, Tang W, Zhang X, Liu D, Xu X*. Tolrestat acts atypically as a competitive inhibitor of the thermostable aldo-keto reductase Tm1743 from Thermotoga maritima. FEBS Lett. 2019, 594(3):564-580.

[4] Xin Y^#, Shi Y^#, Niu T^#, Wang Q, Niu W, Huang X, Ding W, Yang L, Blankenship RE, Xu X*, Sun F*. Cryo-EM structure of the RC-LH core complex from an early branching photosynthetic prokaryote. Nat Commun. 2018, 9(1):1568.

[5] Xu X*, Zhou H, Zhou Q, Hong F, Vo MN, Niu W, Wang Z, Xiong X, Nakamura K, Wakasugi K, Schimmel P, Yang XL*. An alternative conformation of human TrpRS suggests a role of zinc in activating non-enzymatic function. RNA Biol. 2018, 15(4-5):649-658.

[6] Wang F, Chen C, Liu X, Yang K, Xu X*, Yang H*. Crystal structure of feline infectious peritonitis virus main protease in complex with synergetic dual inhibitors. J Virol. 2015, 90(4):1910-7.

[7] Zhu L, Xu X, Wang L, Dong H, Yu B*, Ma Y*. NADP+-Preferring d-Lactate Dehydrogenase from Sporolactobacillus inulinus. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2015, 81(18):6294-301.

[8] Shi Y, Xu X, Zhang Q, Fu G.S., Mo Z.Y., Wang George S, Kishi S, Yang X.L*. tRNA synthetase counteracts c-Myc to develop functional vasculature. eLife. 2014, 3: e02349.

[9] Xu X, Shi Y, Yang X.L*. Crystal structure of human seryl-tRNA synthetase and Ser-SA complex reveals a molecular lever specific to higher eukaryotes. Structure. 2013, 21(11): 2078-86.

[10] Xu X^#, Shi Y^#, Zhang HM, Swindell EC, Marshall AG, Guo M, Kishi S,Yang XL*. Unique domain appended to vertebrate tRNA synthetase is essential for vascular development. Nat Commun. 2012, 3: 681.

[11] Zhou Q, Kapoor M, Guo M, Belani R, Xu X, Kiosses WB, Hanan M, Park C, Armour E, Do MH, Nangle LA, Schimmel P, Yang XL*. Orthogonal use of a human tRNA synthetase active site to achieve multifunctionality. Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2010, 17(1): 57-61.

[12] Xu X, Zhai Y, Sun F, Lou Z, Su D, Xu Y, Zhang R, Joachimiak A, Zhang XC, Bartlam M & Rao Z*. New antiviral target revealed by the hexameric structure of mouse hepatitis virus nonstructural protein nsp15. J Virol. 2006, 80(16): 7909-7917.