1988 - 1992  B.S. in Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology

1992 - 1996  Ph.D. in Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology

1996 - 1999  Postdoctoral Fellow, Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Germany

1999 - 2000  Senior Fellow, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington, USA

2000 - 2003  Professor, Institute of Biophysics and Biochemistry, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China

2003 -           Professor, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

1997-1999  Max-Planck-Institute Fellowship

2000           Cheung Kong Scholars, China

2001/2002  Li Foundation Heritage Prize, USA

2004           Expert entitled to Government Special Allowance

2004           Young expert with outstanding contributions

2006           The 10th May 4th Youth Medal, China

2007           Young Affiliate, TWAS

2008           National Natural Science Award (the Second Class), China

2008 -           Editorial Board Vice-Chair, Biochemical Journal

2007 -           Editorial Board Member, Journal of Biological Chemistry

2006 - 2010  Associate Chairman, the Biophysical Society of China　　　　　

2006 - 2010  Chairman, Membrane and Cellular Biophysics Committee of the Biophysical Society of China　　　　　　　

2004 -           Invited Editor, Chinese Science Bulletin

Our studies focus on two aspects: one is to identify key proteins and regulatory mechanisms involved in the docking, priming and fusion of different secretary vesicles, particularly large dense-core vesicles (DCVs) and GLUT4 storage vesicles (GSVs). The other is to develop novel super-resolution imaging tools, in combination with spectroscopic, biophysical and electron microscopy techniques.

1. We maintain our focus on regulated exocytosis involved in blood glucose regulation, trying to elucidate the key molecular events involved in insulin release. We are now approaching this goal in a systematical way by combining a variety of techniques taken from different scientific fields and assessing protein function from molecule to system level. For example, by constructing protein mutants and RNA interference, we explore roles of multiple proteins in distinct exocytotic processes; then we combine techniques like optical imaging, electrophysiology and biological chemistry to study the co-localization, function and interaction of these proteins at cellular level; in the end, we employ gene knockout and transgenetic animals to study the function of certain protein at system level.

2. Another direction is to develop new methods to improve the performance of currently used diffraction-unlimited microscopy especially in spatial resolution, temporal resolution and labeling technology. We are generating novel algorithms for super-resolution microscopy with higher resolution and accuracy. We are also developing instruments for near-molecular resolution optical microscopy, capable of imaging intracellular proteins with nanometer resolution and determining the static structural relationship between two or more proteins of interest at the molecular level.

1. Liqing Liu, Shuxin Yang, Yang Liu, Xixia Li, Junjie Hu*, Li Xiao* and Tao Xu*, DeepContact: High-throughput quantification of membrane contact sites based on electron microscopy imaging. Journal of Cell Biology 2022, 221(9): e2021061900.

2. Min Li, Fengping Feng, Han Feng, Pengkai Hu, Yanhong Xue, Tao Xu*, Eli Song*, VAMP4 regulates insulin levels by targeting secretory granules to lysosomes. Journal of Cell Biology 2022, 221(10):e202110164.

3. Wang, L.; Liu, H.; Zhang, X.; Song, E.; Wang, Y.; Xu, T.*; Li, Z.*, WFS1 functions in ER export of vesicular cargo proteins in pancreatic β-cells. Nature communications 2021, 12 (1), 6996.

4. Lusheng Gu, Yuanyuan Li, Shuwen Zhang, Maoge Zhou, Yanhong Xue, Weixing Li, Tao Xu* and Wei Ji*, Molecular-scale axial localization by repetitive optical selective exposure, Nature Methods 2021, 18: 369-373.

5. Zhifei Fu, Dingming Peng, Mingshu Zhang*, Fudong Xue, Rui Zhang, Wenting He, Tao Xu* and Pingyong Xu*, mEosEM withstands osmium staining and Epon embedding for super-resolution CLEM, Nature Methods 2020,17:(55-58).

6. Mingshu Zhang, Zhifei Fu, Changqing Li, Anyuan Liu, Dingming Peng, Fudong Xue, Wenting He, Shan Gao, Fan Xu, Dan Xu, Ling Yuan, Fa Zhang, Zhiheng Xu, Tao Xu*, Pingyong Xu*, Fast super-resolution imaging technique and immediate early nanostructure capturing by a photo-convertible fluorescent protein, Nano Letters 2020, 20(4): 2197-2208.

7. Lusheng Gu, Yuanyuan Li, Shuwen Zhang, Yanhong Xue, Weixing Li, Dong Li, Tao Xu*, Wei Ji*, Molecular resolution imaging by repetitive optical selective exposure (ROSE), Nature Methods 2019，16(11):1114-1118

8. Wenjuan Zou, Jiajun Fu, Haining Zhang, Kang Du, Wenming Huang, Junwei Yu, Shitian Li, Yuedan Fan, Howard A. Baylis, Shangbang Gao, Rui Xiao, Wei Ji*, Lijun Kang* and Tao Xu*. Decoding the intensity of sensory input by two glutamate receptors in one C. elegans interneuron. Nature Communications 2018, 9:4311.

9. Zonghong Li, Maoge Zhou, Zhaokui Cai, Wen Zhong, Qiang Hao, Dongwan Chen, Xihao Hu, Junjie Hou, Pingyong Xu, Yuanchao Xue, Yifa Zhou, Tao Xu*. RNA binding protein DDX1 is responsible for fatty acid mediated repression of insulin translation. Nucleic Acids Research 2018. 1-16. 　

(From Tao Xu, December 20, 2022)