Xianzheng Zhou, M.D., Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Mayo Mail Code 366
420 Delaware Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Phone: (612) 626-2961
Fax: (612) 626-4074
zhoux058@umn.edu

Dr. Zhou is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology-Oncology and Blood and Marrow Transplantation, and the Cancer Center.

Dr. Zhou received his medical degree in 1983 from Jiangxi Medical College in Nanchang, People's Republic of China, his master's of science degree in microbiology and immunology in 1986 from Tongji Medical University, Wuhan, PRC, and his doctorate degree in immunology in 1994 from Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. Dr. Zhou's postdoctoral fellowships were from October 1994 to March 1997 at the Center for Cancer Research and the Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts and then from April 1997 to June 1999 at the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center, Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore, Maryland. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Minnesota in September 2002, Dr. Zhou was on the faculty at Johns Hopkins Oncology Center where he cloned HLA class I restricted human kidney cancer antigen using T cells isolated from GM-CSF-tumor cell vaccinated patients and studied lentiviral vector-mediated gene transfer in human T lymphocytes.

His current mission is to study how bone marrow transplant cures leukemia and causes graft-versus-host disease. He is developing an independent research program in studying what target molecules induce graft-versus-tumor and graft-versus-host disease post bone marrow transplantation. Dr. Zhou's long-term research interest focuses on T cell responses to tumor antigens and cancer vaccines. He is a member of four professional associations. He has 24 peer-reviewed research publications.

Honors and Awards

• 1982 Excellent Student, Jiangxi Medical College
• 1993-1994 Research Scholarship, Karolinska Institute
• 2003 Masonic Dietz Family Award for Travel
• 2005-2007 ASH Junior Faculty Scholar Award
• 2006-2009 Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy Young Investigator Award
• 2006-2008  The Sidney Kimmel Foundation for Cancer Research Kimmel Scholar Award

Research Interests

1. Human cancer immunology
2. Transplant biology and therapy

Selected Recent Publications:

Huang, X., Guo, H., Kang, J., Choi, S., Zhou, T.C., Tammana, S., Lees, C.J., Li, Z.Z., Milone, M., Levine, B.L., Tolar, J., June, C.H., Scott McIvor R., Wagner, J.E., Blazar, B.R., Zhou, X. Sleeping Beauty Transposon-mediated Engineering of Human Primary T Cells for Therapy of CD19 (+) Lymphoid Malignancies. Mol Ther. 2008 Mar; 16 (3): 580-589. Epub 2008 Jan 29.

Ravi, R., Fuchs, E.J., Jain, A., Pham, V., Yoshimura, K., Prouser, T., Jalla, S., Zhou, X., Garrett-Mayer, E., Kaufmann, S.H., Schulick, R.D., Pardoll, D.M., Bedi, A.  Resistance of cancers to immunologic cytotoxicity and adoptive immunotherapy via X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein expression and coexisting defects in mitochondrial health signaling.  Cancer Res. 2006 Feb 1; 66(3):1730-9.

Huang, X., Wilber, A., Bao, L., Dong, T., Tolar, J., Orchard, P., Levine, B. L., June, C. H., McIvor, S., Blazar, B. R., and Zhou, X. Stable gene transfer and expression in human primary T cells by the Sleeping Beauty transposon system. Blood. 2006. 107:483-491.

Huang, X., Lei, B., Gebe, J., Blazar, B., and Zhou, X. A Combinational method to identify HLA-DRB1*0401 individuals for immunotherapeutic studies. Manuscript in preparation. 2004.

Zhou, X., Jun, D. Y., Huang, X., Huang, L.-Q., Mautner, J., Yu, Z., Thomas, A. M., Mo, W., Robbins, P. F., Pardoll, D. M., and Jaffee, E. M. Diverse CD8+ T cell responses to renal cell carcinoma antigens in a patient treated with an autologous GM-CSF gene-transduced renal tumor cell vaccine. Cancer Res, 2005 Feb 1; 65(3): 1079-88.

Zhou, X., Cui, Y., Huang, X., Yu, Z., Thomas, A. M., Pardoll, D. M., Jaffee, E. M., and Cheng L. Lentiviral-mediated gene transfer and expression in established human tumor antigen-specific cytotoxic T cells and primary unstimulated T cells. Human Gene Therapy. 2003. 14:1809-1105.

Lu, Z., Yuan, L., Zhou, X., Levitsky, H. L., and Pardoll, D. M. CD40-independent pathways of T cell help for priming of CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes. J. Exp. Med. 2000. 191:541-550.

Zhou, X., Wong, S., Walter J., Jacks, T., and Eisen, H. N. Increased generation of CD8+ T cell clones in p53 mutant mice. J. Immunol. 1999. 162:3957-3960.

Suzue, K., Zhou, X, Eisen, H. N., and Young, R. Heat shock proteins as vehicles for antigen delivery into the class I presentation pathway. Proc. Natl. Acad, Sci. USA. 1997. 94: 13146-13151.

Zhou, X., Berglund, P., Zhao, H., Liljeström, P., and Jondal, M. Generation of cytotoxic and humoral immune responses by nonreplicative recombinant Semliki Forest virus. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 1995. 92:3009-3013.

Liu, T., Zhou, X., Orvell, C., Lederer, E., Ljunggren, H.-G., and Jondal., M. Heat-inactivated Sendai virus can enter multiple MHC class I processing pathways and generate CTL responses in vivo. J. Immunol. 1995. 154:3147-3155.

Zhou, X., Glas, R., Ljunggren, H.-G., and Jondal, M. Antigen processing mutant T2 cells present viral antigen restricted through H-2Kb. Eur. J. Immunol. 1993. 23:1802-1808.

Zhou, X., Berg, L., Abdel Motal, U. M., and Jondal, M. In vivo primary induction of virus-specific CTL by immunization with 9-mer synthetic peptides. J. Immunol. Methods. 1992. 153:193-200.