Dr. Huaxi Xu, Jeanne & Gary Herberger Leadership Chair and Director of Neuroscience Initiative at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP), is an expert specialized in the molecular mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). His research is focused on the regulation of APP processing and trafficking, and mechanisms of synaptic dysfunction and neurotoxicity induced by proteotoxic beta amyloid and neurofibrillary tangle (NFT) tau components. Dr. Xu’s laboratory has also engaged in pioneering research in investigating novel genes and pathways involved in neuronal function/dysfunction and cell death and integrating their cellular function to the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases such as AD, Down syndrome and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy. To this end, his laboratory is also developing animal models to study neuronal and microglial function in relation to neurodegenerative dysfunction. As an independent PI with over 20 years’ experience, Dr. Xu has continuously received funding of multiple grants from the NIH and many private foundations and published over 150 papers with a total impact factor of ~1100 (with ~12,000 citations and an h-index >55).

Dr. Xu received his Ph.D. degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine under joint supervision from Dennis Shields and Gunter Blobel (1999 Laureate of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine); his thesis studies focused on the intracellular trafficking and proteolytic processing of membrane proteins. Dr. Xu completed his postdoctoral studies at The Rockefeller University, where he was appointed assistant professor in 1998 in the laboratory of Paul Greengard (2000 Laureate of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine), where he carried out a variety of research projects characterizing signal transduction pathways in the central nervous system. Dr. Xu moved to SBP as associate professor in 2003 and was promoted to full professor in 2008; he also served as Neurodegenerative Disease Research Program Director from 2007-2012. Together with Dr. Guojun Bu (Mayo Clinic), Dr. Xu established the well-respected neuroscience journal, Molecular Neurodegeneration (with a 5-yr impact factor of 7.077), which has become one of the top-ranking scientific journals in the neuroscience field.