Xianxin Hua MD, PhD

Xianxin Hua, MD, Ph.D., a professor of Cancer Biology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, one of 11 Harrington Scholar-Innovator Awards. Hua’s group discovered that inhibition of the gene that encodes menin, called Men1, reverses pre-existing hyperglycemia in mice fed a high-fat diet by increasing the regeneration of beta cells. Later work with his collaborators revealed a potentially druggable pocket in the crystal structure of the menin protein.