New Faculty Profile: Duo Xu

Photo of Prof. Duo XuThe Department of Biochemistry welcomes Duo Xu, who joined the faculty on August 19, 2024. The Xu Lab will focus on understanding protein-protein interactions at host-pathogen interfaces, knowledge that will inform the design and development of new vaccines and therapeutics to combat infectious diseases.

Xu became interested in viruses and the human immune system after finishing his Ph.D. in chemical engineering at UCLA. His doctoral research had focused on “packaging and delivering proteins for various therapeutic applications,” Xu says, by designing nanocarriers that could ferry detoxifying enzymes to treat alcohol overdoses or transport nerve growth factors to the central nervous system to treat spinal cord injuries.

“One thing about research on drug delivery is that we always try to avoid immune clearance so that the drugs we’re trying to deliver can reach their target site,” explains Xu. “When I finished my Ph.D., I decided to stop running away from the immune system and to start engaging with it. And with my skillset, the perfect way to do that was to work on vaccines, which are meant to induce an immune response.”

Xu embarked on that avenue of discovery as a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University, where he designed and engineered protein-based vaccine candidates.

“I’ve been especially interested in understanding protein-protein interactions at the host-pathogen interface,” says Xu. “Such understanding will inform new targets and design principles that will help to develop the next generation of vaccines. It also combines my experience in protein engineering and my interest in viruses.”

Xu, who was hired as part of the Wisconsin Research, Innovation and Scholarly Excellence Initiative (RISE-AI theme), will continue this line of work as UW–Madison faculty. His lab will combine principles of protein engineering, biochemistry, structural biology, and immunology to identify new approaches to manipulate immune responses and understand the biology of the antibody selection and development process.

“Viruses never stop evolving. If our current approach to vaccines is always chasing the next variant, then we’re always going to be lagging behind viral evolution,” explains Xu. “The important question is, how can we stay ahead of viral evolution?” One approach, he mentioned, is to focus on evolutionarily conserved regions of viral proteins. These regions may serve as targets for designing vaccines and therapeutics in viruses such as flu, Ebola and coronaviruses. Xu’s research will apply lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic to prepare for future viral outbreaks.

Madison, says Xu, is an ideal place to continue his line of inquiry. He looks forward to the new perspectives he will gain among the Department of Biochemistry’s diverse community of researchers and to the potential for creative collaborations across campus, from the Global Health Institute to entomologists working with insect-borne diseases.

Xu also intends to foster a creative, inclusive and collaborative environment within his lab. “Something that I inherited from my own mentors is the desire to give students a large degree of freedom to explore their interests, while guiding them with scientific rigor. I want to build a lab environment where we welcome and celebrate each other’s successes. We are all here to support each other.”