Dr Xiaohong Zhao

Dr Xiaohong Zhao

Casual Research Assistant

School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy

Career Summary

Biography

Dr Xiaohong Zhao is an early-career cancer biologist at the University of Newcastle and Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI). Her research focuses on RNA biology and novel therapeutic targets in lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC), with the ultimate goal of developing new biomarkers and therapies that improve patient outcomes.

Her program spans two key streams: (1) defining how noncoding RNAs and RNA modifications act as molecular “switches” that drive cancer progression and treatment resistance, and (2) investigating the novel targets for LUSC treatment, where her team is testing whether targeting FGFBP2 can block tumour growth. This includes evaluating AAV-delivered siRNA therapeutics and assessing circulating FGFBP2 as a diagnostic and prognostic biomarker.

Dr Zhao also brings expertise in cancer metabolism from her PhD, where she discovered that colorectal cancer cells, despite their glycolytic profile, are vulnerable to inhibition of oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS). This finding broadened the therapeutic potential of mitochondrial-targeted therapies and provides complementary insight into tumour biology.

Since completing her PhD in 2023, Dr Zhao has established an independent research stream integrating patient-derived organoids (PDOs) and xenograft models (PDXs) to accelerate translation of laboratory discoveries into preclinical testing. She has co-authored 18 peer-reviewed publications, including first/co-first author papers in PNAS, Cell Death & Disease, and Theranostics, and contributed to collaborative studies in Nature Communications, Cancer Research, and Advanced Science. Her work has been recognised through multiple awards, invited presentations, and competitive grant funding. She currently leads a small research team and works closely with collaborators in pharmaceutical sciences, pathology, biostatistics, and clinical oncology.

Research Interests

  • RNA biology: Understanding how noncoding RNAs and RNA modifications drive cancer progression and treatment resistance.
  • Lung squamous cell carcinoma: Identifying new therapeutic targets for one of the most lethal cancers.
  • Cancer metabolism: Identifying metabolic vulnerabilities, including mitochondrial OXPHOS, as complementary therapeutic opportunities in cancer.
  • Patient-derived models: Using PDOs and PDXs to test RNA-based, metabolic, and LUSC-targeted therapies in clinically relevant systems.



Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Biochemistry, University of Newcastle
  • Bachelor of Medicine, Xinxiang Medical University, China
  • Master of Medicine, Sichuan University - China

Keywords

  • Cancer biology
  • Cancer metabolism
  • Cell biology
  • Colorectal cancer
  • LncRNA
  • Lung cancer
  • RNA modifications

Languages

  • English (Fluent)
  • Mandarin (Mother)

Fields of Research

Code Description Percentage
321104 Cancer therapy (excl. chemotherapy and radiation therapy) 30
321101 Cancer cell biology 50
320501 Medical biochemistry - amino acids and metabolites 20

Professional Experience

Professional appointment

Dates Title Organisation / Department
28/3/2023 - 18/8/2023 Research Assistant College of Health, Medicine & Wellbeing - The University of Newcastle
School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy
Australia

Awards

Award

Year Award
2023 Best publication award-2nd place
EMCR Committee of Cancer Detection and Therapy Program
2022 Best oral presentation awards-2nd place
Australian Association of Chinese Biomedical Scientists (AACBS)
2022 People’s Choice-Student Presentation award
Cancer and Precision Medicine Symposium
2020 Best oral presentation awards-3rd place
Australian Association for Chinese Biomedical Scientists

Prize

Year Award
2021 Three Minute Thesis-the 3rd place winner of University of Newcastle
Three Minute Thesis competition

Invitations

Speaker

Year Title / Rationale
2023 p53 underpins a dependence on oxidative phosphorylation in glycolysis-competent colorectal cancer.
Edit

Publications

For publications that are currently unpublished or in-press, details are shown in italics.


Conference (5 outputs)

Year Citation Altmetrics Link
2021 Feng Y, La T, Zhang Y, Zhao X, Sokulsky L, Jin L, Zhang XD, 'The pan-cancer lncRNA PLANE promotes cancer pathogenesis through regulating an alternative splicing program', ASIA-PACIFIC JOURNAL OF CLINICAL ONCOLOGY, 17, 15-15 (2021)
2020 Teng L, Feng YC, La T, Zhang YY, Zhao XH, Sokulsky L, Yan XG, Jin L, Zhang XD, 'LncRNA PLANE regulates NCOR2 alternative splicing and promotes tumorigenesis', ASIA-PACIFIC JOURNAL OF CLINICAL ONCOLOGY, 16, 31-31 (2020)
Co-authors Lei Jin
2020 La T, Zhao XH, Zhang YY, Feng YC, Yan XG, Sokulsky L, Jin L, Zhang XD, 'Visualization of endogenous p27 and Ki67 reveals an IDH3-mediated metabolic switch toward oxidative phosphorylation in quiescent cells', ASIA-PACIFIC JOURNAL OF CLINICAL ONCOLOGY, 16, 32-32 (2020)
2020 Zhao XH, La T, Feng YC, Zhang YY, Yan XG, Sokulsky L, Jin L, Zhang XD, 'Targeting oxidative phosphorylation for cancer treatment in colorectal cancer', ASIA-PACIFIC JOURNAL OF CLINICAL ONCOLOGY, 16, 41-42 (2020)
2020 Feng YC, Zhang YY, La T, Tabatabaee H, Zhao X, Yan XG, Zhang XD, Jin L, 'c-Myc inactivation of p53 through the pan-cancer lncRNA MILIP drives cancer pathogenesis', ASIA-PACIFIC JOURNAL OF CLINICAL ONCOLOGY, 16, 44-44 (2020)
Show 2 more conferences

Journal article (19 outputs)

Year Citation Altmetrics Link
2025 Teng L, Feng YC, Guo ST, Wang PL, Qi TF, Yue YM, Wang SX, Zhang SN, Tang CX, La T, Zhang YY, Zhao XH, Gao JN, Wei LY, Zhang D, Wang JY, Shi Y, Liu XY, Li JM, Cao H, Liu T, Thorne RF, Jin L, Shao F-M, Zhang XD, 'Author Correction: The pan-cancer lncRNA PLANE regulates an alternative splicing program to promote cancer pathogenesis.', Nat Commun, 16 (2025)

Correction to: Nature Communicationshttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24099-4, published online 18 June 2021 In the version of the article initially published there we... [more]

Correction to: Nature Communicationshttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24099-4, published online 18 June 2021 In the version of the article initially published there were errors in Fig. 2c and f. In Fig. 2c, the NCI-H226 si-PLANE.2 image was incorrect and from another experimental replicate of HCT116 si-PLANE.2. In Fig. 2f, the three images in A549. shPLANE.2 (-Dox, +Dox and Dox withdrawal) are incorrect, and from images of A549 si-ctrl, si-PLANE.1 from Fig. 2c and another experimental replicate of A549 si-PLANE.2, respectively. In Fig. 2f, the three images of stained cell colonies shown in H1299.shPLANE.1 (-Dox, +Dox and Dox withdrawal) are incorrect and from images of H1299 si-ctrl, si-PLANE.1 and parental from Fig. 2c respectively. The original and corrected Fig. 2c and f are shown below. The figure has been corrected in the PDF and HTML versions of the article. The raw data for Fig.¿2 are included as¿Supplementary information alongside the online version of the article. Fig. 1 Original and corrected Fig. 2c and f Original Figure: (Figure presented.) Corrected Figure: (Figure presented.)

DOI 10.1038/s41467-025-59086-6
Co-authors Lei Jin
2025 Xu L, Zhao XH, Zhang YY, Zhang MY, Zhang LY, Ye KH, Teng L, Han MM, Yue YM, Yang J, Ogle R, Netherton J, Tang D, Lan S, Baker M, Ye Y, Liu T, Wang YF, Zhang XD, Fan T, Jin L, 'SNORD80-guided 2’-O-methylation stabilizes the lncRNA GAS5 to regulate cellular stress responses', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 122 (2025) [C1]
DOI 10.1073/pnas.2418996122
Co-authors Mark Baker, Lei Jin
2025 Zhao XH, Han MM, Yan QQ, Yue YM, Ye K, Zhang YY, Teng L, Xu L, Shi XJ, La T, Feng YC, Xu R, Narayana VK, De Souza DP, Quek LE, Holst J, Liu T, Baker MA, Thorne RF, Zhang XD, Jin L, 'DNA replication stress underpins the vulnerability to oxidative phosphorylation inhibition in colorectal cancer', Cell Death and Disease, 16 (2025) [C1]
DOI 10.1038/s41419-025-07334-4
Co-authors Lei Jin
2024 Xu L, Meng L, Xiang W, Wang X, Yang J, Shu C, Zhao XH, Rong Z, Ye Y, 'Prohibitin 2 confers NADPH oxidase 1-mediated cytosolic oxidative signaling to promote gastric cancer progression by ERK activation', FREE RADICAL BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE, 224, 130-143 (2024) [C1]

Oxidative signaling plays a dual role in tumor initiation and progression to malignancy; however, the regulatory mechanisms of oxidative stress in gastric cancer remain... [more]

Oxidative signaling plays a dual role in tumor initiation and progression to malignancy; however, the regulatory mechanisms of oxidative stress in gastric cancer remain to be explored. In this study, we discovered that Prohibitin 2 (PHB2) specifically regulates cytosolic reactive oxygen species production in gastric cancer and facilitates its malignant progression. Previously, we found that PHB2 is upregulated in gastric cancer, correlating with increased tumorigenicity of gastric cancer cells and poor patient prognosis. Here, we discovered that PHB2 expression correlates with the activation of the ERK/MAPK cascade, positively regulating the top gene NADPH oxidase 1 (NOX1) within this pathway. Further mechanistic investigation reveals that PHB2 enhances NOX1 transcription by interacting with the transcription factor C/EBP-beta and promoting its translocation into the nucleus, resulting in elevated intracellular oxidative signaling driven by NOX1, which subsequently activates ERK. Therefore, we propose that targeting PHB2-C/EBP-beta-NOX1-mediated cytosolic oxidative stress could offer a promising therapeutic avenue for combating gastric cancer malignant progression.

DOI 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2024.08.028
Citations Scopus - 1
2024 Zheng SM, Feng YC, Zhu Q, Li RQ, Yan QQ, Teng L, Yue YM, Han MM, Ye K, Zhang SN, Qi TF, Tang CX, Zhao XH, Zhang YY, Xu L, Xu R, Xing J, Baker M, Liu T, Thorne RF, Jin L, Preiss T, Zhang XD, Cang S, Gao JN, 'MILIP Binding to tRNAs Promotes Protein Synthesis to Drive Triple-Negative Breast Cancer', CANCER RESEARCH, 84, 1460-1474 (2024) [C1]
DOI 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-23-3046
Citations Scopus - 2
Co-authors Lei Jin, Mark Baker
2024 Xu L, Xiang W, Yang J, Gao J, Wang X, Meng L, Ye K, Zhao XH, Zhang XD, Jin L, Ye Y, 'PHB2 promotes SHIP2 ubiquitination via the E3 ligase NEDD4 to regulate AKT signaling in gastric cancer', JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL & CLINICAL CANCER RESEARCH, 43 (2024) [C1]
DOI 10.1186/s13046-023-02937-1
Citations Scopus - 7Web of Science - 4
Co-authors Lei Jin
2024 Xu Q, La T, Ye K, Wang L, Wang S, Hu Y, Teng L, Yan L, Li J, Zhang Z, Shao Z, Zhang YY, Zhao XH, Feng YC, Jin L, Baker M, Thorne RF, Zhang XD, Shao F-M, Cao H, 'KMT2A and chronic inflammation as potential drivers of sporadic parathyroid adenoma', CLINICAL AND TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE, 14 (2024) [C1]
DOI 10.1002/ctm2.1734
Co-authors Mark Baker
2023 Li RQ, Zhao XH, Zhu Q, Liu T, Hondermarck H, Thorne RF, Zhang XD, Gao JN, 'Exploring neurotransmitters and their receptors for breast cancer prevention and treatment', THERANOSTICS, 13, 1109-1129 (2023) [C1]
DOI 10.7150/thno.81403
Citations Scopus - 2Web of Science - 8
Co-authors Hubert Hondermarck
2023 La T, Chen S, Zhao XH, Zhou S, Xu R, Teng L, Zhang YY, Ye K, Xu L, Guo T, Jamaluddin MF, Feng YC, Tang HJ, Wang Y, Xu Q, Gu Y, Cao H, Liu T, Thorne RF, Shao F-M, Zhang XD, Jin L, 'LncRNA LIMp27 Regulates the DNA Damage Response through p27 in p53-Defective Cancer Cells', ADVANCED SCIENCE, 10 (2023) [C1]
DOI 10.1002/advs.202204599
Citations Scopus - 1Web of Science - 7
Co-authors Lei Jin
2022 Wang PL, Teng L, Feng YC, Yue YM, Han MM, Yan Q, Ye K, Tang CX, Zhang SN, Qi TF, Zhao XH, La T, Zhang YY, Li JM, Bin H, Xu D, Cang S, Li W, Jin L, Thorne RF, Zhang Y, Liu T, Zhang XD, 'The N-Myc-responsive lncRNA MILIP promotes DNA double-strand break repair through non-homologous end joining', PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 119 (2022) [C1]
DOI 10.1073/pnas.2208904119
Citations Scopus - 1Web of Science - 9
Co-authors Lei Jin
2021 Teng L, Feng YC, Guo ST, Wang PL, Qi TF, Yue YM, Wang SX, Zhang SN, Tang CX, La T, Zhang YY, Zhao XH, Gao JN, Wei LY, Zhang D, Wang JY, Shi Y, Liu XY, Li JM, Cao H, Liu T, Thorne RF, Jin L, Shao F-M, Zhang XD, 'The pan-cancer lncRNA PLANE regulates an alternative splicing program to promote cancer pathogenesis', NATURE COMMUNICATIONS, 12 (2021) [C1]
DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-24099-4
Citations Scopus - 4Web of Science - 37
Co-authors Lei Jin
2021 La T, Chen S, Guo T, Zhao XH, Teng L, Li D, Carnell M, Zhang YY, Feng YC, Cole N, Brown AC, Zhang D, Dong Q, Wang JY, Cao H, Liu T, Thorne RF, Shao F-M, Zhang XD, Jin L, 'Visualization of endogenous p27 and Ki67 reveals the importance of a c-Myc-driven metabolic switch in promoting survival of quiescent cancer cells', THERANOSTICS, 11, 9605-9622 (2021) [C1]
DOI 10.7150/thno.63763
Citations Scopus - 2Web of Science - 19
Co-authors Alexandra Brown, Lei Jin
2021 Feng YC, Zhao XH, Teng L, Thorne RF, Jin L, Zhang XD, 'The pan-cancer lncRNA MILIP links c-Myc to p53 repression', MOLECULAR & CELLULAR ONCOLOGY, 8 (2021)
DOI 10.1080/23723556.2020.1842714
Citations Scopus - 4Web of Science - 2
Co-authors Lei Jin
2018 Zhang S, Zhu Q, Chen X, Zhao Y, Zhao X, Yang Y, Gao Z, Fang T, Wang Y, Zhang J, 'Forensic applicability of multi-allelic InDels with mononucleotide homopolymer structures', ELECTROPHORESIS, 39, 2136-2143 (2018) [C1]
DOI 10.1002/elps.201700468
Citations Scopus - 1Web of Science - 14
2018 Zhao Y, Chen X, Yang Y, Zhao X, Zhang S, Gao Z, Fang T, Wang Y, Zhang J, 'Potential forensic biogeographic application of diatom colony consistency analysis employing pyrosequencing profiles of the 18S rDNA V7 region', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LEGAL MEDICINE, 132, 1611-1620 (2018) [C1]
DOI 10.1007/s00414-018-1849-x
Citations Scopus - 2Web of Science - 10
2018 Zhao Y, Mao Z, Pang H, Zhao X, Zhang S, Gao Z, Yang Y, Fang T, Ma Q, Ma X, Wang Y, Zhang J, 'Association of programmed cell death 1 (PDCD1 ) gene polymorphisms with colorectal cancer among Han Chinese population', Chinese Journal of Medical Genetics, 35, 219-223 (2018)

Objective To assess the association of programmed cell death 1 (PDCD1) gene polymorphisms with the susceptibility and/or progression of colorectal cancer. Methods A hos... [more]

Objective To assess the association of programmed cell death 1 (PDCD1) gene polymorphisms with the susceptibility and/or progression of colorectal cancer. Methods A hospital-based case-control study was carried out, which recruited 426 colorectal cancer patients and 500 healthy individuals. Five single nucleotide polymorphisms, namely rs36084323, rsll568821, rs2227981, rs2227982 and rsl0204525, were selected for the study and genotyped with a polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism(PCR-RFLP) assay. Results The G allele of rs36084323 under a dominant model was associated with increased risk of advanced TNM staging of colorectal cancer progression (OR = 1.59, 95% CI = 1.02-2.48). Haplotypes G-G-C-T-A and A-G-C-C-G of the rs36084323, rsll568821, rs2227981, rs2227982, and rsl0204525 were negatively associated with the occurrence of colorectal cancer. Conclusion The G allele of rs36084323 is associated with increased risk of advanced TNM staging of colorectal cancer. Conversely, the incidence of colorectal cancer is negatively associated with the haplotypes G-G-C-T-A and A-G-C-C-G of rs36084323, rsll568821, rs2227981, rs2227982, and rs10204525.

DOI 10.3760/cma.j.issn.1003-9406.2018.02.016
Citations Scopus - 7
2018 Gao Z, Chen X, Zhao Y, Zhao X, Zhang S, Yang Y, Wang Y, Zhang J, 'Forensic genetic informativeness of an SNP panel consisting of 19 multi-allelic SNPs', FORENSIC SCIENCE INTERNATIONAL-GENETICS, 34, 49-56 (2018) [C1]
DOI 10.1016/j.fsigen.2018.01.006
Citations Scopus - 2Web of Science - 19
2018 Zhao X, Chen X, Zhao Y, Zhang S, Gao Z, Yang Y, Wang Y, Zhang J, 'Construction and forensic genetic characterization of 11 autosomal haplotypes consisting of 22 tri-allelic indels', FORENSIC SCIENCE INTERNATIONAL-GENETICS, 34, 71-80 (2018) [C1]
DOI 10.1016/j.fsigen.2018.02.001
Citations Scopus - 8Web of Science - 8
2017 Zhao Y, Zhao X, Zhang S, Gao Z, Yang Y, Fang T, Wang Y, Zhang J, 'A short unix shell script for vcftools commands iteration to obtain the genotypes of variations for forensic purpose', Forensic Science International Genetics Supplement Series, 6, e49-e51 (2017) [C1]

The release of 1000 Genomes Project has provided a great variety of genome-wide variations spanning major populations worldwide, which offered a convenient path to the ... [more]

The release of 1000 Genomes Project has provided a great variety of genome-wide variations spanning major populations worldwide, which offered a convenient path to the study of human genetic structure. VCFtools, a suite of functions dedicated to loci details summarizing, calculating, filtering, and genotype outputting can act as a powerful utility for genetic markers hunting and evaluating in the context of forensic purpose. While it is a labor-intensive and error-prone job involving repeating of multiple VCFtools commands step by step. Hence, we introduced a short UNIX-based bash shell script which contains an iteration structure to call VCFtools commands repeatedly for summarizing genotypes in different variation loci of different populations automatically. By setting up variations list and groups list, VCFtools commands with different arguments can be executed consecutively. Consequently, this process can be realized automatically with high efficiency and precision in the study of forensic genetics.

DOI 10.1016/j.fsigss.2017.09.007
Citations Scopus - 3
Show 16 more journal articles
Edit

Grants and Funding

Summary

Number of grants 5
Total funding $18,659

Click on a grant title below to expand the full details for that specific grant.


20251 grants / $5,000

Dual-targeting nanoparticle therapy for lung squamous cell carcinoma via FGFBP2 knockdown and BCL-2 inhibition$5,000

Funding body: School of Biomedical Science & Pharmacy, University of Newcastle

Funding body School of Biomedical Science & Pharmacy, University of Newcastle
Scheme School of Biomedical Science & Pharmacy EMCR Strategic Support Initiative
Role Lead
Funding Start 2025
Funding Finish 2025
GNo
Type Of Funding Internal
Category INTE
UON N

20241 grants / $2,500

Harnessing a novel anti-senescence mechanism to combat lung squamous cell carcinoma$2,500

Funding body: School of Biomedical Science & Pharmacy, University of Newcastle

Funding body School of Biomedical Science & Pharmacy, University of Newcastle
Project Team

Xiaohong Zhao; Yuanyuan Zhang

Scheme School of Biomedical Science & Pharmacy EMCR Strategic Support Initiative
Role Lead
Funding Start 2024
Funding Finish 2024
GNo
Type Of Funding Internal
Category INTE
UON N

20233 grants / $11,159

Advancing the inhibition of oxidative phosphorylation for cancer treatment$7,739

Funding body: Cancer Detection & Therapy Research program

Funding body Cancer Detection & Therapy Research program
Scheme Small Pilot Project funding
Role Lead
Funding Start 2023
Funding Finish 2023
GNo
Type Of Funding Internal
Category INTE
UON N

Unveiling the functional role of citrate in the regulation of cancer cell proliferation: identifying protein binders as key factors$3,120

Funding body: Cancer Detection & Therapy Research program

Funding body Cancer Detection & Therapy Research program
Scheme EMCR shovel-ready project funding
Role Lead
Funding Start 2023
Funding Finish 2023
GNo
Type Of Funding Internal
Category INTE
UON N

Cancer Detection & Therapy Research Program EMCR Learning Funding$300

Funding body: Cancer Detection & Therapy Research program

Funding body Cancer Detection & Therapy Research program
Scheme EMCR Learning Funding
Role Lead
Funding Start 2023
Funding Finish 2023
GNo
Type Of Funding Internal
Category INTE
UON N
Edit

Research Supervision

Number of supervisions

Completed0
Current1

Current Supervision

Commenced Level of Study Research Title Program Supervisor Type
2025 PhD Nanoparticle Delivery of RNA Therapeutics for Lung Cancer Treatment PhD (Medical Biochemistry), College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing, The University of Newcastle Co-Supervisor
Edit

Dr Xiaohong Zhao

Position

Casual Research Assistant
School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy
College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing

Contact Details

Email xiaohong.zhao@newcastle.edu.au
Phone 0466219528
Link UoN Blogs
Edit