Research Focus

Professor Xiubao Ren has been engaged in cancer biotherapy and medical oncology for nearly 30 years. He was elected as the National Personnel Ministry "Millions of Talents" in 2012 and acquired the Special Government Allowances of the State Council. Prof. Ren’s main area of expertise includes tumor biotherapy, tumor microenvironment, new therapeutic strategies and clinical trials. His group developed large-scale CIK cell culture technology and carried out the first CFDA-approved clinical trial of CIK cell therapy for solid tumors in China. They also carried out in-depth basic research on CIK treatment and launched a multi-center clinical trial in the country, which had resulted in more than 20 relevant publications. In addition, His group focused on immune microenvironment in tumor and explored the relationship between MDSC and Breg. Recently, some new therapeutic strategy has been investigated and applied such as TCR-T, CAR-T, and tumor vaccine.

Selected Publications 

1.Sun Q, Li S, Wang Y, Peng H, Zhang X, Zheng Y, Li X, Li L, Chen R, Chen X, Bai W, Jiang X, Liu L, Wei F, Wang B, Zhang Y, Li H, Ren X*, Zhang H*. Phosphoglyceric acid mutase-1 contributes to oncogenic mTOR-mediated tumor growth and confers non-small cell lung cancer patients with poor prognosis. Cell Death and Differentiation, 2018 Jan 23. PMID: 29362480.https://www.nature.com/articles/s41418-017-0034-y 

2.Shen M#, Wang J#, Yu W, Zhang C, Liu M, Wang K, Yang L, Wei F, Wang E*, Sun Q*, Ren X*. A novel MDSC-induced PD-1-PD-L1+ B-cell subset in breast tumor microenvironment possesses immuno-suppressive properties. OncoImmunology. 2017. PMID: 29632731.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2162402X.2017.1413520 

3.Li R, Li H, Sun Q, Liu L, Zhang C, Ren X. Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase regulates T cell activity through Vav1/Rac pathway. Mol Immunol. 2017 Jan;81:102-107. PMID: 27930920.https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0161589016302577 

4.Liu L, Zhang L, Yang L, Li H, Li R, Yu J, Yang L, Wei F, Yan C, Sun Q, Zhao H, Yang F, Jin H, Wang J, Wang SE, Ren X. Anti-CD47 Antibody As a Targeted Therapeutic Agent for Human Lung Cancer and Cancer Stem Cells. Front Immunol. 2017 Apr 21;8:404. PMID: 28484448.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2017.00404/full 

5.Wang K, Wang J, Wei F, Zhao N, Yang F, Ren X. Expression of TLR4 in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Is Associated with PD-L1 and Poor Prognosis in Patients Receiving Pulmonectomy. Front Immunol. 2017 Apr 21;8:456. PMID: 28484456.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2017.00456/full 

6.Wei F, Yang F, Li J, Zheng Y, Yu W, Yang L, Ren X. Soluble Toll-like receptor 4 is a potential serum biomarker in non-small cell lung cancer. Oncotarget. 2016 Jun 28;7(26):40106-40114. PMID: 27223258.http://www.oncotarget.com/index.php?journal=oncotarget&page=article&op=view&path[]=9496&path[]=29599 

7.Zhang L, Wang J, Wei F, Wang K, Sun Q, Yang F, Jin H, Zheng Y, Zhao H, Wang L, Yu W, Zhang X, An Y, Yang L, Zhang X, Ren X. Profiling the dynamic expression of checkpoint molecules on cytokine-induced killer cells from non-small-cell lung cancer patients. 2016, Oncotarget. 2016 Jul 12;7(28):43604-43615. PMID:  27283895.http://www.oncotarget.com/index.php?journal=oncotarget&page=article&op=view&path[]=9871&path[]=30995 

8.Hui Z, Zhang X, Ren B, Li R, Ren X. Rapid Response of Advanced Squamous Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer with Thrombocytopenia after First-Line Treatment with Pembrolizumab Plus Autologous Cytokine-Induced Killer Cells. Front Immunol. 2015 Dec 17;6:633. PMID: 26734004.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2015.00633/full 

9.Yu J, Wang Y, Yan F, Zhang P, Li H, Zhao H, Yan C, Yan F, Ren X. Noncanonical NF-κB activation mediates STAT3-stimulated IDO upregulation in myeloid-derived suppressor cells in breast cancer. J Immunol. 2014 Sep 1;193(5):2574-86. PMID: 25063873.https://www.jimmunol.org/content/193/5/2574 

10.Yu J, Du W, Yan F, Wang Y, Li H, Cao S, Yu W, Shen C, Liu J, Ren X. Myeloid-derived suppressor cells suppress antitumor immune responses through IDO expression and correlate with lymph node metastasis in patients with breast cancer. J Immunol 2013;190(7):3783-97. PMID: 23440412.https://www.jimmunol.org/content/190/11/5341.2