Project Investigator Biography

Xinbin Gu, M.D., Ph.D. Howard University, Dixon Building, Room 210, 600 W. Street NW, Washington DC 20059 phone: (202) 806-0345 fax: (202) 806-5523 email: xgu@howard.edu

Dr. Xinbin Gu is a professor at Howard University’s College of Dentistry and Graduate School. She is a principal investigator at Howard University, along with Dr. Joseph Califano, a principal investigator at Johns Hopkins University, on the Howard University and Johns Hopkins University PACHE partnership to enhance research and education in head and neck cancer health disparity at Howard University since 2005.

Research in Dr. Gu’s laboratory is focused on cancer prevention and cancer therapy. The development of effective, low toxicity and affordable anticancer agents can be a strategy for preventing or delaying cancer disease. They found that a micronutrient, vitamin E succinate, inhibits the growth of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma in vitro and in vivo through an induction of ceramide-mediated apoptotic pathway (Clinical Cancer Research, 2008). They also discoved that a natural compound, salvianolic acid B, which is isolated from a Chinese herb medicine (Danshen), suppresses tumor cell growth through alteration of cell cycle, apoptosis, and COX-2 expression (International Journal of Cancer, 2009).

Dr. Gu received her medical doctor degree from Jiangxi University of Chinese Medicine and Ph.D. degree in biochemistry and molecular biology from Medical College of Virginia. She completed her residency program in oncology at Jiangxi Cancer Hospital in China and postdoctoral training at National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research in Maryland.