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Dr Zhihong Xu
Lecturer

Dr Zhihong Xu

PhD thesis title: Stromal-tumour interaction in pancreatic cancer. Faculty of Medicine, UNSW Sydney.

Medicine & Health
School of Clinical Medicine

I obtained my PhD degree at UNSW Sydney. My research interests focus on pancreatic cancer, chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic stellate cells. I have published more than 20 peer-reviewed publications with total citations over 1500 and one book chapter, 10 publications and over 1200 citations in the past five years, and an H-index of 17. I'm a co-investigator of an Ideas Grant (2020-2023) funded by Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, the chief investigator of a project founded by Tour de Cure in 2019 and a co-investigator of a 3-year project (2018-2020) funded by Avner Pancreatic Cancer Foundation. 
Phone
02 8738 9197
E-mail
zhihong.xu@unsw.edu.au
Location
Level 4, Ingham Institute, No. 1 Campbell Street, Liverpool, NSW 2170 Australia

1.    Co-investigator of National Health and Medical Research Council Ideas Grant. Pancreatic Cancer-Related Diabetes: Novel Role of Pancreatic Stellate Cells (2020 –2023; $486,210).

2.     Lead Researcher of Tour de Cure of pancreatic cancer: Capture, investigate and target circulating stromal cells and cancer cells (2019; $80,000). Funded by Tour de Cure.

3.     Co-investigator of Avner Pancreatic Cancer Foundation Accelerator Grant. Pathway to a Novel Treatment for Pancreatic Cancer – Targeting the Microenvironment (Stroma) (2018 – 2020; $735,815)

  • Basic Research Paper of the Year by the South West Sydney Clinical Campuses. Xu et al., Targeting the HGF/c-MET pathway in advanced pancreatic cancer: A key element of treatment that limits primary tumour growth and eliminates metastasis. Br J Cancer 2020 May; 122(10): 1486–1495.
  • Finalist of Young Investigator Award, Australian Gastroenterology Week 2019. Xu Z., et al. Inhibition of Hepatocyte Growth Factor (HGF) Signalling Pathway in Combination with Chemotherapy Reduces Tumour Burden in an Orthotopic Model of Advanced Pancreatic Cancer. 8-10 Sep 2019, Adelaide Convention Centre, Australia. ​
  • Young Investigator Travel Award for the 2018 the annual meeting of the American Pancreatic Association (APA), 31 Oct - 3 November 2018, Miami, Florida, USA.  
  • Travel Award from International Association of Pancreatology (IAP) for the 2017 IAP and LAPSG Joint Meeting. 28-30 September 2017, Buenos Aires, Argentina.  
  • Papers of the Year Biomedical Research (South Western Sydney Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine, UNSW Sydney). Lee*, Xu* et al (*Equal first authors). Alcohol and cigarette smoke components activate human pancreatic stellate cells: Implications for the progression of chronic pancreatitis.Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. Vol 39(11):2123-33.  
  • Young Investigator Travel Award from IAP for the joint annual meeting of the Pancreatic Cancer Committee of Chinese Anti-Cancer Association and IAP, 27-29 August 2015, Shanghai, China.  Paper of the Month Awards (School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, UNSW Sydney): Xu et al, Role of pancreatic stellate cells in pancreatic cancer metastasis. Am J Patho, Vol 177 (5):2585-96. 

My research interests focus on pancreatic cancer, chronic pancreatitis and the biology of pancreatic exocrine function. 

My Research Supervision

Honours