Professor, Anesthesiology, Pharmacology, Structural Biology  University of Pittsburgh Phone: (412) 648-9922 Fax: (412) 648-8998 Email: xuy@anes.upmc.edu This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Lab Website:  http://www.anes.upmc.edu/research/xulab/

Ph.D., State University of New York at Stony Brook

Research Interests

Dr. Xu’s research group is interested in (1) the molecular mechanisms underlying the actions of low-affinity drugs, particularly general anesthetics, on the ligand-gated neuronal receptors in their membrane environment, (2) functional mapping of conscious versus unconscious brain regions, and (3) rational design of new therapeutic strategies for treatment of brain injury during and after cardiac arrest. For these three projects, the recent research activities are directed at (1) structure determination of functional segments of human glycine receptor, (2) visual and olfactory systems of the rat and mouse brains, and (3) stem cell protection via extracellular signaling, respectively.

Recent Publications

• Bondarenko V, Yushmanov VE, Xu Y, Tang P: NMR Study of General Anesthetic Interaction with nAChR â2 Subunit, Biophysical J, 94, 1681-1688, 2008.

• Cui T, Bondarenko V, Ma D, Canlas CG, Brandon NR, Johansson JS, Xu Y, Tang P: Four-á-Helix Bundle with Designed Anesthetic Binding Pockets II: Halothane Effects on Structure and Dynamics, Biophysical J, in press, 2008.
• Ma D, Brandon NR, Cui T, Bondarenko V, Canlas CG, Johansson JS, Tang P, Xu Y: Four-á-Helix Bundle with Designed Anesthetic Binding Pockets I: Structural and Dynamical Analyses, Biophysical J, in press, 2008.
• Jomura S, Uy M, Mitchell K, Dallasen R, Bode C, Xu Y: Potential Treatment of Cerebral Global Ischemia with Umbilical Cord Matrix Stem Cells, Stem Cells, 25:98-106, 2007.
• Cheng MH, Liu LT, Saladino A, Xu Y, Tang P: Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Ternary Membrane Mixture - Phosphatidylcholine, Phosphatidic Acid, and Cholesterol, J Phys Chem B, 111, 14186-92, 2007.
• Szarecka A., Xu Y., Tang P. "Dynamics of heteropentameric nicotinic acetylcholine receptor: Implications of the gating mechanism." Proteins 68(4): 948-960, 2007.
• Szarecka A., Xu Y., Tang P. "Dynamics of Firefly Luciferase Inhibition by General Anesthetics: Gaussian and Anisotropic Network Analyses." Biophys J. ASAP, 2007.