Prof Zhi-Cheng Xiao - Researcher Profile

We do not have a photograph of this person yet.

Address

Monash Immunology & Stem Cell Labs
Faculty of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences, Clayton

Biography

From the bench to the bed

Professor Zhicheng Xiao believes industry and academia must work together to provide society with the medical advances necessary to care for an ageing global population. As both a former director of pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and an academic researcher with 20 years of experience, he speaks with credibility. 

Zhicheng’s career in neuroscience research has taken him to so many countries around the globe that his children fluently speak five languages. Along his journey, he has come to the conclusion that the world’s ageing population presents one of the biggest challenges to modern medical science.

"The world is getting older and as we age our chances of suffering from neural disease, such as Alzhiemer's and Parkinson's diseases, dramatically increase," Zhicheng says.

"At the age of 60, 10 per cent of people will have problems associated with ageing. After 80 the rate increases to more than 50 per cent. 

"In the last 25 years big companies such as Pfizer and GSK have spent billions of dollars to solve this problem, but it still does not look promising. This is the biggest challenge in the world today."

Zhicheng sees hope for meeting this challenge through using stem cell technologies to repair damaged neural pathways in the brain. This research could have applications for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury.

His stem cell research follows two pathways. Firstly, Zhicheng is exploring the process of neurogenesis, the way that the developing brain produces neurons, and investigating whether stem cells could be used to stimulate growth and repair in an adult brain. 

Secondly, he is investigating gliagenesis, the way by which brain cells (oligodendrocytes) create mylein, the material that forms a layer - the myelin sheath - around the axon of a neuron. The axon is responsible for sending electrical impulses from the neuron, and the loss of its protective myelin sheath is common to neurodegenerative autoimmune diseases, including multiple sclerosis. 

He is also conducting drug screening on a range of natural products, such as those used in Chinese medicine, to gauge their therapeutic potential. 

Zhicheng's research has already attracted respect around the scientific world. His work has been published as cover stories of both Cell and Nature Cell Biology. He was awarded the Excellent Principal Investigator Award in 2004 and has several filed patents.

He joined Monash in October 2010, after working as Director of Innovative Research with GSK. 

Zhicheng believes his combination of academic and industry experience will be an asset to the University's efforts to find new therapies for the problems associated with ageing.

"It is important that we have a marriage between industry and academia," Zhicheng says.

"I am quite happy that at Monash one hand pushes the basic research, and the other hand pushes commercialisation. We need to bridge these two parts. 

"This helps us to think about how to bring the product from the bench to the bed. And also, how to gather the ideas from the bed and investigate them at the bench -  this is a circle. We must work hard at this circle, and think about building the mechanisms to promote its function."

Qualifications

PHD
Institution: Swiss Federal Institute Zurich
Year awarded: 1996

Publications

Journal Articles

Lu, L., Song, H., Zhang, W., Liu, X., Cheng, X., Yang, G., Li, A., Xiao, Z., 2012, Potential role of 20S proteasome in maintaining stem cell integrity of human bone marrow stromal cells in prolonged culture expansion, Biochemical And Biophysical Research Communications [P], vol 422, issue 1, Academic Press, USA, pp. 121-127.

Fernandez, F., Soon, I., Li, Z., Kuan, T., Min, D., Wong, E.S., Demidov, O.N., Paterson, M.C., Dawe, G.S., Bulavin, D.V., Xiao, Z., 2012, Wip1 phosphatase positively modulates dendritic spine morphology and memory processes through the p38MAP pathway, Cell Adhesion and Migration [P], vol 6, issue 4, Landes Bioscience, USA, pp. 333-343.

Huang, X., Sun, J., Zhao, T., Wu, K., Watanabe, K., Xiao, Z., Zhu, L., Fan, M., 2011, Loss of NB-3 aggravates cerebral ischemia by impairing neuron survival and neurite growth, Stroke [P], vol 42, issue 10, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, USA, pp. 2910-2916.

Ye, H., Zhao, T., Tan, Y.J., Liu, J., Pallen, C.J., Xiao, Z., 2011, Receptor-like protein-tyrosine phosphatase a enhances cell surface expression of neural adhesion molecule NB-3, Journal Of Biological Chemistry [P], vol 286, issue 29, American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc., USA, pp. 26071-26080.

Zhou, Z., Chan, C.H., Xiao, Z., Tan, E., 2011, Ring finger protein 146/Iduna is a poly (ADP-ribose) polymer binding and PARsylation dependent E3 ubiquitin ligase, Cell Adhesion and Migration [P], vol 5, issue 6, Landes Bioscience, USA, pp. 463-471.

Zhou, Z., Chan, C.H., Ma, Q., Xu, X., Xiao, Z., Tan, E., 2011, The roles of amyloid precursor protein (APP) in neurogenesis: Implications to pathogenesis and therapy of Alzheimer disease, Cell Adhesion and Migration [P], vol 5, issue 4, Landes Bioscience, USA, pp. 280-292.

Zhou, Z., Kumari, U., Xiao, Z., Tan, E., 2010, Notch as a molecular switch in neural stem cells, Iubmb Life [P], vol 62, issue 8, Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd, UK, pp. 618-623.

Zeng, X., Tan, K., Yeo, A., Sasajala, P., Tan, X., Xiao, Z., Dawe, G.S., Udolph, G., 2010, Pregnancy-associated progenitor cells differentiate and mature into neurons in the maternal brain, Stem Cells and Development [P], vol 19, issue 12, Mary Ann Liebert Inc Publishers, USA, pp. 1819-1830.

Li, Y., Wu, G., Zeng, L., Dawe, G.S., Sun, L., Loers, G., Tilling, T., Cui, S., Schachner, M., Xiao, Z., 2009, Cell surface sialylation and fucosylation are regulated by the cell recognition molecule L1 via PLC? and cooperate to modulate embryonic stem cell survival and proliferation, FEBS Letters [P], vol 583, issue 4, Elsevier BV, The Netherlands, pp. 703-710.

Dawe, G., Xiao, Z., 2009, Letter from the guest editors: Introduction to molecular and cellular events controlling neuronal and brain function and dysfunction, Cell Adhesion and Migration [P], vol 3, issue 1, Landes Bioscience, USA, pp. 51-52.

Sajikumar, S., Li, Q., Abraham, W.C., Xiao, Z., 2009, Priming of short-term potentiation and synaptic tagging/capture mechanisms by ryanodine receptor activation in rat hippocampal CA1, Learning & Memory [P], vol 16, issue 3, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, USA, pp. 178-186.

Wang, P., Wang, J., Xiao, Z., Pallen, C.J., 2009, Protein-tyrosine phosphatase alpha acts as an upstream regulator of Fyn signaling to promote oligodendrocyte differentiation and myelination, Journal Of Biological Chemistry [P], vol 284, issue 48, American Society for Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Inc, USA, pp. 33692-33702.

Zhang, Y., Hao, C., Hu, L., Dong, J., Wei, P., Xu, D., Xiao, Z., Wang, T., 2009, Recombinant DNA vaccine against inhibition of neurite outgrowth promotes functional recovery associated with endogeous NGF expression in spinal cord hemisected adult rats, Neurochemical Research [P], vol 34, issue 9, Springer New York LLC, USA, pp. 1635-1641.

Zhu, Y., Zhang, C., Lu, L., Demidov, O.N., Sun, L., Yang, L., Bulavin, D.V., Xiao, Z., 2009, Wip1 regulates the generation of new neural cells in the adult olfactory bulb through p53-dependent cell cycle control, Stem Cells [P], vol 27, issue 6, AlphaMed Press Inc, USA, pp. 1433-1442.

Ma, Q., Bagnard, D., Xiao, Z., Dawe, G.S., 2008, A TAG on to the neurogenic functions of APP, Cell Adhesion and Migration [P], vol 2, issue 1, Landes Bioscience, USA, pp. 2-8.

Ma, Q., Futagawa, T., Yang, W., Jiang, X., Zeng, L., Takeda, Y., Xu, R., Bagnard, D., Schachner, M., Furley, A.J., Karagogeos, D., Watanabe, K., Dawe, G.S., Xiao, Z., 2008, A TAG1-APP signalling pathway through Fe65 negatively modulates neurogenesis, Nature Cell Biology [P], vol 10, issue 3, Nature Publishing Group, UK, pp. 283-294.

Li, Y., Wu, G., Dawe, G.S., Zeng, L., Cui, S., Loers, G., Tilling, T., Sun, L., Schachner, M., Xiao, Z., 2008, Cell surface sialylation and fucosylation are regulated by L1 via phospholipase Cgamma and cooperate to modulate neurite outgrowth, cell survival and migration, PLoS ONE [P], vol 3, issue 12, Public Library of Science, USA, pp. 1-11.

Zhang, Y., Ang, B., Xiao, Z., Ng, I., 2008, DNA vaccination against neurite growth inhibitors to enhance functional recovery following traumatic brain injury, Acta Neurochirurgica, Supplement [P], Springer Wein, Austria, pp. 347-351.

Lu, L., Chen, X., Zhang, C., Yang, W., Wu, Y., Sun, L., Bai, L., Gu, X., Ahmed, S., Dawe, G.S., Xiao, Z., 2008, Morphological and functional characterization of predifferentiation of myelinating glia-like cells from human bone marrow stromal cells through activation of F3/Notch signaling in mouse retina, Stem Cells [P], vol 26, issue 2, AlphaMed Press Inc, USA, pp. 580-590.

Wu, Y., Tang, Y.F., Xiao, Z., Bao, Z.M., He, B., 2008, NG2 cells response to axonal alteration in the spinal cord white matter in mice with genetic disruption of neurofilament light subunit expression, Molecular Neurodegeneration [P], vol 3, BioMed Central Ltd, UK, pp. 1-15.

Ye, H., Tan, Y.J., Ponniah, S., Takeda, Y., Wang, S., Schachner, M., Watanabe, K., Pallen, C.J., Xiao, Z., 2008, Neural recognition molecules CHL1 and NB-3 regulate apical dendrite orientation in the neocortex via PTPalpha, Embo Journal [P], vol 27, issue 1, Nature Publishing Group, UK, pp. 188-200.

Li, M., Li, Y., Liao, X., Liu, J., Qin, H., Xiao, Z., Song, J., 2008, Rational design, solution conformation and identification of functional residues of the soluble and structured Nogo-54, which mimics Nogo-66 in inhibiting the CNS neurite outgrowth, Biochemical And Biophysical Research Communications [P], vol 373, issue 4, Academic Press, USA, pp. 498-503.

Dawe, G.S., Tan, X.W., Xiao, Z., 2007, Cell migration from baby to mother, Cell Adhesion and Migration [P], vol 1, issue 1, Landes Bioscience, USA, pp. 19-27.

Nie, D., Xu, G., Ahmed, S., Xiao, Z., 2007, DNA vaccine and the CNS axonal regeneration, Current Pharmaceutical Design [P], vol 13, issue 24, Bentham Science Publishers Ltd, The Netherlands, pp. 2500-2506.

Ma, Q., Yang, W., Nie, D., Dawe, G.S., Xiao, Z., 2007, Physiological roles of neurite outgrowth inhibitors in myelinated axons of the central nervous system-implications for the therapeutic neutralization of neurite outgrowth inhibitors, Current Pharmaceutical Design [P], vol 13, issue 24, Bentham Science Publishers Ltd, The Netherlands, pp. 2529-2537.

Hu, Q., Ma, Q., Gennarini, G., Xiao, Z., 2006, Cross-talk between F3/contactin and Notch at axoglial interface: a role in oligodendrocyte development, Developmental Neuroscience [P], vol 28, issue 1-2, S Karger AG, Switzerland, pp. 25-33.

Dawe, G.S., Schachner, M., Paterson, M.C., Xiao, Z., 2006, Ensheathing the Node of Ranvier?, Neuron Glia Biology [P], vol 2, Cambridge University Press, USA, pp. 149-150.

Nie, D., Ma, Q., Law, J.W., Chia, C., Dhingra, N.K., Shimoda, Y., Yang, W., Gong, N., Chen, Q., Xu, G., Hu, Q., Chow, P.K., Ng, Y., Ling, E., Watanabe, K., Xu, T., Habib, A.A., Schachner, M., Xiao, Z., 2006, Oligodendrocytes regulate formation of nodes of Ranvier via the recognition molecule OMgp, Neuron Glia Biology [P], vol 2, Cambridge University Press, USA, pp. 151-164.

Ang, B., Xu, G., Xiao, Z., 2006, Therapeutic vaccination for central nervous system repair, Clinical And Experimental Pharmacology And Physiology [P], vol 33, issue 5-6, Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Asia, Australia, pp. 541-545.

Tan, X., Liao, H., Okabe, M., Xiao, Z., Dawe, G.S., 2005, Fetal microchimerism in the maternal mouse brain: a novel population of fetal progenitor or stem cells able to cross the blood-brain barrier?, Stem Cells [P], vol 23, issue 10, AlphaMed Press Inc, USA, pp. 1443-1452.

Chen, J., Lu, D., Chia, C., Ruan, D., Sabapathy, K., Xiao, Z., 2005, Impaired long-term potentiation in c-Jun N-terminal kinase 2-deficient mice, Journal Of Neurochemistry [P], vol 93, issue 2, Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd, UK, pp. 463-473.

Liao, H., Bu, W., Wang, T., Ahmed, S., Xiao, Z., 2005, Tenascin-R plays a role in neuroprotection via its distinct domains that coordinate to modulate the microglia function, Journal Of Biological Chemistry [P], vol 280, issue 9, American Society for Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Inc, USA, pp. 8316-8323.