Jian Xie, PhD
Assistant Professor, UNMC Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology
Jian Xie, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology at UNMC. He is also a full member of the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center and a faculty member of the Nebraska Center for Virology.
The overarching goal of Dr. Xie’s research is to define membrane-associated virus-host interactions. His laboratory investigates how viruses interact with cell surface molecules, exploit membrane trafficking pathways, and engage intracellular organelles to enter host cells and establish infection, with a particular emphasis on human papillomavirus and virus-associated cancers.
A major focus of Dr. Xie’s current research is the emerging biology of cell surface RNAs and glycosylated RNAs, or glycoRNAs. Traditionally, RNA was considered to function primarily within the nucleus and cytoplasm. The discovery that selected RNAs can be glycosylated and displayed on the extracellular surface of mammalian cells has revealed a previously unrecognized layer of cell surface biology. These molecules may participate in cell recognition, receptor organization, immune regulation, pathogen entry, and intercellular communication. Dr. Xie’s laboratory investigates how cell surface RNAs, glycoRNAs, and associated RNA-binding proteins regulate viral attachment, entry, and endocytic trafficking, as well as how these mechanisms may contribute to the development and progression of virus-associated cancers. Dr. Xie also collaborates with leading laboratories at Yale School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School to advance the rapidly developing fields of cell surface RNA and glycoRNA biology. This pioneering research integrates virology, RNA biology, glycobiology, membrane trafficking, cancer biology, and systems-level approaches, and is supported by an NIH NIGMS R35 grant. His collaborative research has contributed to publications in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and other peer-reviewed journals.
Dr. Xie is affiliated with the doctoral programs in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Bioinformatics and Systems Biology; Cancer Biology; Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology; and Immunology, Pathology and Infectious Disease. Through these programs, he contributes to interdisciplinary graduate education, research training, and mentorship.
- BSc: Department of Virology, College of Life Science, Wuhan University, China, 1997.
- MSc: Department of Microbiology, College of Life Science, Wuhan University, China, 2001.
- PhD: Biochemistry and Biophysics Graduate Program, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, 2015.
- Postdoctoral Associate: Yale School of Medicine and Yale Cancer Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 2020.
- Associate Research Scientist: Yale School of Medicine and Yale Cancer Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 2022.
- Cell surface RNAs and glycoRNAs in viral infections
- Cancer biomarkers
- Membrane contact sites
- Phase separation
- Innate immunity in virus-host interactions
- Cellular delivery
Invention: Jian Xie, Daniel DiMaio. Inhibitors of Cellular Deubiquitinases as Anti-Viral Agents, Applying through Yale Ventures.
- Madison Love, Richard Dang, Jian Xie, Pengwei Zhang. The Rab5 effector Rabankyrin-5 mediates endosomal fusion and trafficking of Human Papillomavirus during early entry. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci, 2026, 123:e2524765123.
- Shannon Faris, Ke Xia, Andrew G. Wagner, Zihan Xu, Brian Callahan, and Jian Xie*, Chunyu Wang*. Conserved C143 Forms a Branched Intermediate in Hedgehog Autoprocessing: A New Cancer Drug Discovery Target Against Hedgehog Signaling. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci, 2025, 122:e2415144122.* Co-corresponding authors.
- Jian Xie, Pengwei Zhang, Mac Crite, Christina Lindsay, Daniel DiMaio. Retromer Stabilizes Transient Membrane Insertion of L2 Capsid Protein during Retrograde HPV entry. Sci. Adv., 2021, 7: eabh4276.
- Jian Xie, Erin Heim, Mac Crite, Daniel DiMaio. TBC1D5-Catalyzed Cycling of Rab7 is Required for Retromer-Mediated Human Papillomavirus Trafficking during Virus Entry. Cell Rep., 2020, 31: 107750.
- American Society for Cell Biology
- American Society for Virology
- American Association for the Advance of Science
- American Chemical Society
- Yale Entrepreneurial Institute
- Reviewer Program: Journal of Biological Chemistry
- Associate editor, Virology Journal
- Editorial board member, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
- Guest editor, Pathogens, Special Issue: "Membrane-Associated Virus-Host Interaction in Infection and Innate Immunity."
- Guest editor, JoVE, section on Human Papillomavirus Entry mechanism
- Peer-Publication Reviewer, EMBO Reports, Journal of Medical Virology, Journal of Theoretical Biology, Viruses, Vaccines, Virology Journal, ACS publications
- Biological Roles and Mechanisms of Cell Surface RNAs in Human Papillomavirus Endocytic Trafficking (Supported through NIGMS R35)
- Unraveling the Mechanism of ER-Associated Human Papillomavirus Endosome Exit (Pending, NIH R01)
- Discovery and Validation of GlycoRNA Biomarkers in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma and other Virus-Related Cancers
- Cell Surface RNAs and GlycoRNAs in Tumor-Related Viral Infections
- Phase Separation Coordinates HPV Entry and Innate Immune Evasion