Faculty Profile

Lifeng Xu
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR-ACAD YR
Microbiology (College of Biological Sciences)
313 Briggs Hall
Office 530-752-3660
Lab 530-752-1088
lfxu@ucdavis.edu
[Picture of Lifeng Xu]

Degrees:
2000 - PhD - Princeton University - Molecular Biology
1993 - BS - Fudan University - Biology

Department and Center Affiliations:
Microbiology

Grad Group Affiliations and Specialties:
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Cell and Developmental Biology
Genetics

Publications:
Xu, L and Blackburn, E.H. Human cancer cells harbor t-stumps, a distinct class of extremely short telomeres. Molecular Cell 28: 315-327 (2007)

Xu, L and Blackburn, E.H. Human Rif1 protein binds aberrant telomeres and aligns along anaphase midzone microtubules. J. Cell Biol. 167: 819-830 (2004)

Ly, H.*, Xu, L.*, Rivera, M.A., Parslow, T.G., Blackburn, E.H. A role for a novel ‘transpseudoknot’ RNA-RNA interaction in the functional dimerization of human telomerase. Genes Dev. 17:1078-1083 (2003)

Kim, M., Xu, L., Blackburn, E.H. Catalytically active human telomerase mutants with allele-specific biological properties. Exp. Cell Res. 288:277-287 (2003)

Comolli, L.R., Smirnov, I., Xu, L., Blackburn, E.H., James, T.L. A molecular switch underlies a human telomerase disease. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 99: 16998-17003 (2002)

Tao, W., Pennica, D., Xu, L., Kalejta, R.F., Levine A.J. Wrch-1, a novel member of the Rho gene family that is regulated by Wnt-1. Genes Dev. 15: 1796-1807 (2001).

Xu, L., Corcoran, R.B., Welsh, J.W., Pennica, D., Levine A.J. WISP-1 is a Wnt-1 and ß-catenin responsive oncogene. Genes Dev. 14: 585-595 (2000).

Research Interests:
Telomeres are the protective nucleoprotein structures at the ends of linear eukaryotic chromosomes. Telomere dysfunction contributes to cancer progression and aging. Our laboratory employs molecular and cytological approaches to study telomere maintenance in human normal cells and cancer cells.

Laboratory Personnel:
341 Briggs Hall - Sara Yuhua Zong, Junior Specialist