Xiulei Mo, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology, Emory University

Dr. Mo’s research interest is to understand SMAD4 disease biology aiming towards clinical translations through discovery of biomarkers, targets and perturbagens. He utilizes multidisciplinary approaches including development of next-generation protein-protein interaction (PPI) detection technologies, biological interrogation of PPI targets, and chemical probe campaign towards PPI-directed drug discovery.

A significant focus of his research is on understanding and targeting the "undrugged" SMAD4 protein through mapping SMAD4 disease variant-specific neo-protein-protein interactions (neoPPI) and discover novel small-molecule SMAD4 PPI modulators. His recent work has led to the systematic mapping of SMAD4 mutation-directed neoPPIs in cancer, the discovery of molecular glues that restore mutant SMAD4's tumor-suppressing function in colon and pancreatic cancers, and the identification of first-in-class small molecule SMAD4 inhibitors to combat TGFβ-driven cancer metastasis.