Eugene Yujun Xu, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Division of Reproductive Biology Research
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
To contact Dr. Xu:
Northwestern University
300 E. Superior St.
Tarry Building 4-755
Chicago, IL 60611
Tel: 312-503-0481
Fax: 312-908-0893
e-mail: e-xu@northwestern.edu
Dr. Xu's website
PubMed
Reference Lookup
Research Interests:
The career research goal of Dr. Eugene Xu is to understand the genetic and
developmental mechanisms responsible for human reproduction, in particular,
gamete production as well as how those mechanisms have evolved. In addition
to the human genetics tools, he would like to take advantage of model organism
systems such as mouse and fly to achieve his goals. His previous research
has identified a candidate human meiotic regulator—BOULE and demonstrated
the conservation of Boule gene at sequence, expression and functional levels
from flies to human. These findings suggest that despite the strong selective
pressure, components of reproductive pathways could still be conserved. He
hypothesizes that there exists a conserved pathway regulating key steps of
germline development and that the BOULE gene is the key regulator that controls
the decision to enter meiosis in mammals.
Dr. Xu’s current research is focused on:
1. Continuing characterization of mammalian BOULE genes through human mutation
screening and the generation of mouse Boule mutation
2. Identifying proteins that interact with BOULE
3. Characterizing murine homologs of putative germline stem cell factor--pumilio
in another key step of germline development—germline stem cell regulation
4. Identifying other conserved components of the reproductive pathways using
comparative genomic approaches
5. Characterizing the function of potential conserved reproductive genes through
screening mouse gene trap ES lines and subsequent analyses of mouse mutants