Jianfeng Xu, M.D., Dr.PH., and H. Eric Xu, Ph.D., are co-directors of VARI International.
Dr. Jianfeng Xu joined Van Andel Research Institute/Translational Genomics Research Institute as a Senior Scientific Investigator in 2010. He heads the VARI/TGen Program in Genetic Epidemiology and is also Director of the VARI Center for Genetic Epidemiology and Prevention. Dr. Xu holds joint appointments at VARI and Wake Forest University, where he directs the Center for Cancer Genomics. Dr. Xu is an established researcher in genetic epidemiology, especially of prostate cancer. His research has contributed to the discovery of several prostate cancer susceptibility genes and prostate cancer modifier genes. He is actively involved in evidence-based studies evaluating the clinical validity and clinical utility of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in risk prediction and genomic-targeted chemoprevention of prostate cancer.
Dr. H. Eric Xu is a VARI Distinguished Scientific Investigator and has headed the Laboratory of Structural Sciences since his arrival in 2002. His laboratory uses a multidisciplinary approach involving molecular and cellular biology, biochemistry, and X-ray crystallography to study proteins of hormone signaling pathways. Major programs in the lab's research effort focus on the family of nuclear hormone receptors, on the Met receptor, and on G protein–coupled receptors. Research on the nuclear hormone receptors has identified important characteristics of the ligand-binding domains of these receptors as well as the discovery of the dramatic expandability of the glucocorticoid receptor ligand-binding pocket. Dr. Xu's recent studies on the receptor for the plant hormone abscisic acid, which is a G protein–coupled receptor, were named as part of Science journal's Breakthroughs of the Year for 2009.
NCCS-VARI Translational Research Program (Singapore)
- Dr. Koo Wen Hsin - Head of Medical Oncology at National Cancer Centre Singapore, provides oversight and management of clinical issues for the NCCS-VARI Translational Research Program
Fudan-VARI Center for Genetic Epidemiology (Shanghai)
- Jiangfeng Xu, M.D., Dr. P.H. – VARI Senior Scientific Investigator, leads and directs the Center in Fudan University, Shanghai
