现任所长，PI

 

 

研究活动

徐和平教授的研究聚焦于炎症在致盲性视网膜疾病发生、发展中的作用，特别是神经元-免疫系统相互作用（neuronal-immune system cross-talk）在视网膜免疫调节及维持视网膜稳态中的作用。通过了解在病理情况下（如老龄、糖尿病等）机体是如何保护神经视网膜免受内源性和外源性损伤，明确退行性视网膜病变的发病机理，以寻求有效的治疗方法。他的研究包括年龄相关性黄斑变性（AMD）、糖尿病性视网膜病变（DR）、葡萄膜视网膜炎和近视引起的视网膜病变（MR）等。

RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

My research centers on the role of inflammation in sight-threatening retinal diseases.  I am interested in neuronal-immune system interaction and immune regulation in retinal health and disease. I aim to understand how the neuroretina is protected from endogenous and exogenous insults during ageing and in diabetes. I have contributed to understanding retinal immune regulation and pathogenesis of retinal degenerative conditions including age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic retinopathy (DR), uveoretinitis, and myopic retinopathy (MR).

 

研究经费及资助

徐和平教授团队的研究得到了国际上多个基金会的资助，包括欧盟地平线（EU Horizon 2020）， Medical Research Council (MRC, UK), the Wellcome Trust, Diabetes UK, Fight for Sight, BrightFocus Foundation (USA) 和Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF, USA)。作为PI和Co-PI，他获得了超过500万英镑的研究经费，以及超过200万英镑的生物医药转化研究经费。

RESEARCH INCOME AND GRANT AWARD

My research is supported by major funding bodies including EU Horizon 2020, Medical Research Council (MRC), the Wellcome Trust, Diabetes UK, Fight for Sight, BrightFocus Foundation (USA) and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF, USA). I have been awarded over £5 million of research income as PI and Co-PI, and over £2 million for translational research from biotechnology industry.

 

奖项和学术成就（awards and academic distinctions）

Ø 2023: Honorary Lecturer, National Autonomous University of Mexico (墨西哥国立自治大学), Mexico (in recognition of my contribution to their “International Diploma in Endocannabinology” programme)

Ø  2021: Honorary Lecturer, National University of Rosario (阿根廷罗萨里奥国立大学), Argentina (in recognition of my contribution to their “Diploma of Advanced Studies in Endocannabinology, Cannabis & Cannabinoids” programme)

Ø  2021: Honorary Professor, Peking University-Hong Kong Science & Technology University Joint Medical Research Centre of Shenzhen, China

Ø  2021: Honorary Professor, Tianjin Medical University, China (in recognition of my contribution to their ocular immunology research and student training)

Ø  2021: Fellow (Silver) of the Association for Research in Vision & Ophthalmology (FARVO)

Ø  2021: Fellow of the Association for Ocular Pharmacology and Therapeutics (FAOPT)

Ø  2016: Visiting Scientist, University of Cologne (科隆大学, 德国)

Ø  2018: Cora Verhagen award (student - Karis Little)

Ø  2011: The Experimental Uveitis Research Award (2^nd prize, for the study of Complement in Uveitis)- European Uveitis Patients Association （欧洲葡萄膜炎患者协会）

Ø  2011: The Experimental Uveitis Research Award (3^rd prize, for the study of BRB in Uveitis) – European Uveitis Patients Association （欧洲葡萄膜炎患者协会）

Ø 2008: European Frontiers in Ocular Pharmacology Lecture (4^th Series), Italian Society of Pharmacology （意大利药学会）

Ø  2005: The Experimental Uveitis Research Award (1^st prize, for the study of leukocyte trafficking in Uveitis) – German Uveitis Patient Interest Group （德国葡萄膜炎患者联合会）

Ø  2005: Research Council UK (RCUK) Fellowship Award

 

学术杂志任职(Editorial Duties)

Ø2024 – Present: Specialty Editor-in-Chief for Inflammatory Eye Disease Section, Frontiers in Ophthalmology

Ø2021 – 2024: Associate Editor, Frontiers in Ophthalmology (Inflammatory Eye Disease)

Ø  2021 – Present: Editorial Board Member of Biomedicines  

Ø2021 – Present: Editorial Board member of Journal of Ocular Pharmacology and Therapeutics (JOPT)

Ø  2018 – Present: Editorial Board Member of Current Molecular Pharmacology

Ø  2018 – Present: Editorial Board Member of Current Eye Research

Ø 2018 – Present: Editorial Board Member of Annals of Translational Medicine

Ø  2017 – Present: Executive Editor of Experimental Eye Research

Ø 2016 – Present: Editorial Board Member of Annals of Eye Science

Ø  2014 – 2021: Editorial Board Member of Scientific Reports

学会成员 Membership in Professional Bodies

Ø  Member of the Association for Ocular Pharmacology and Therapeutics (AOPT)

Ø  Member of the Association for Research in Vision & Ophthalmology (ARVO)

Ø  Member of the International Society of Eye Research (ISER)

ØMember of European Association for Vision and Eye Research (EVER)

Ø  Member of the British Society of Immunology (BSI)

Ø Member of the European Macrophage & Dendritic Cell Society (EMDS)

 

代表性学术论文

截至2024年12月，徐教授及其团队共发表超过155篇SCI高质量学术论文，被引用超过10500次，H因子58，以下为近期发表的及部分代表性论文。

Peer-reviewed research articles （Recent and selected publications）

1.      Szczepan M, Llorian-Salvador M, Yi C, Hughes D, Mack M, Chen M, Xu H. Differential roles of macrophages and microglia in subretinal fibrosis secondary to neovascular age-related macular degeneration. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2025

2.      Zeng, L., Yang, Z., Pan, W., Lin, D., Tang, Y., Chen, B., Xu, H. & Li, X., Higher intraocular levels of inflammatory factors are related to retinal vascular and neurodegeneration in myopic retinopathy. J Inflamm Res. 2024,17, 10889-10900.

3.      Liu, H., Zhou, Y., Qi, J., Liang, S., Guo, T., Chen, J., Tan, H., Wang, J., Xu, H. & Chen, Z., Intraocular complement activation is independent of systemic complement activation and is related to macular vascular remodelling in retinal vein occlusion. BMC Ophthalmology. 2024, 24, 509. doi.org/10.1186/s12886-024-03781-3.

4.      Xu H, Yi C, Chen M. The complement pathway as a therapeutic target for neovascular age-related macular degeneration-mediated subretinal fibrosis. Current Opinion in Pharmacology 2024, 76, 102448

5.      Lei Y, Liu Q, Wu F, Chen B, Li Y, Gong X, Ma N, Wu Z, …., Xu H, Chen M, Yan H, Wang X. Protein O-GlcNAcylation coupled to Hippo signaling drives vascular dysfunction in diabetic retinopathy. Nat Commun. 2024, 15(1), 9334.

6.      Dong X, Song Y, Liu Y, Kou X, Yang T, Shi SX, He K, Li Y, Li Z, Yao X, Guo J, Cui B, Lei Y, Du M, Chen M, Xu H, Liu Q, Shi F, Wang X, Yan H. Natural killer cells promote neutrophil extracellular traps and restrain macular degeneration in mice. Science Translational Medicine. 2024, 16 (760), eadi6626

7.     Anderson A, Alfahad N, Wimalachandra D, Bouzinab K, Rudzinska P, Wood H, Fazey I, Xu H, Lyons TJ, Barnes NM, Narendran P, Lord JM, Rauz S, Ganley IG, Curtis TM, Wallace GR, Hombrebueno JR. Relaxation of mitochondrial hyperfusion in the diabetic retina via N6-furfuryladenosine confers neuroprotection regardless of glycaemic status. Nat Commun. 2024 Feb 6;15(1):1124. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-45387-9.

8.   Lei X, Chen Z, Liu H, Chen J, Tan H, Dai W, Wang X, Xu H. A Cross-Modal Feature Fusion Method to Diagnose Macular Fibrosis in Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration. IEEE. 2024. DOI: 10.1109/ISBI56570.2024.10635126

9.      <!--[endif]-->Wang T, Kaneko S, Kriukov E, Alvarez D, Lam E, Wang Y, La Manna S, ...Chen M, Xu H, Barranov P, Cai G, von Andrian UH, Sun Y. SOCS3 regulates pathological retinal angiogenesis through modulating SPP1 expression in microglia and macrophages. Molecular Therapy. 2024, 32 (5), 1425-1444

10. Deng W, Yi C, Pan W, Liu J, Qi J, Chen J, Zhou Z, Duan Y, Ning X, Li J, Ye C, Chen Z, Xu H. Vascular Cell Adhesion Molecule-1 (VCAM-1) contributes to macular fibrosis in neovascular age-related macular degeneration through modulating macrophage functions. Immun Ageing. 2023 Nov 20;20(1):65.

11. Zhou Y, Qi J, Liu H, Liang S, Guo T, Chen J, Pan W, Tan H, Wang J, Xu H and Chen Z. Increased intraocular inflammation in retinal vein occlusion is independent of circulating immune mediators and is involved in retinal oedema. Front. Neurosci. 2023; 17:1186025. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1186025.

12.  Cui B, Guo X, Zhou W, Zhang X, He K, Bai T, Lin D, Wei-Zhang S, Zhao Y, Liu S, Zhou H, Wang Q, Yao X, Shi Y, Xie R, Dong X, Lei Y, Du M, Chang Y, Xu H, Zhou D, Yu Y, Wang X, Yan H. Exercise alleviates neovascular age-related macular degeneration by inhibiting AIM2 inflammasome in myeloid cells. Metabolism. 2023;144:155584. doi: 10.1016/j.metabol.2023.155584.

13. Zeng L, Li X, Pan W, Tang Y, Lin D, Wang M, Cai W, Zhu R, Wan J, Huang L, Xu H, Yang Z. Intraocular complement activation is related to retinal vascular and neuronal degeneration in myopic retinopathy. Front Cell Neurosci. 2023;17:1187400. doi: 10.3389/fncel.2023.1187400.

14.  Yi C, Liu J, Deng W, Luo C, Qi J, Chen M, Xu H. Old age promotes retinal fibrosis in choroidal neovascularization through circulating fibrocytes and profibrotic macrophages. J Neuroinflammation. 2023; 20,45. doi.org/10.1186/s12974-023-02731-y

15. Qi J, Pan W, Peng T, Zeng L, Li X, Chen Z, Yang Z, Xu H. Higher Circulating Levels of Neutrophils and Basophils Are Linked to Myopic Retinopathy. Int J Mol Sci. 2023; 24(1):80.

16.  Llorián-Salvador M, Byrne EM, Szczepan M, Little K, Chen M, Xu H. Complement activation contributes to subretinal fibrosis through the induction of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in retinal pigment epithelial cells. J Neuroinflammation, 2022, 19, 182. doi.org/10.1186/s12974-022-02546-3

17.  Yi C, Liu J, Deng W, Luo C, Qi JY, Chen M, Xu H. Macrophage elastase (MMP12) critically contributes to the development of subretinal fibrosis. J Neuroinflammation, 2022, 19, 78. doi.org/10.1186/s12974-022-02433-x

18.  Xu H and Chen M. Immune response in retinal degenerative diseases – Time to rethink? Prog Neurobiol. 2022, 219:102350.

19.  Liu J, Yi C, Ming W, Tang M, Tang X, Luo C, Lei B, Chen M, Xu H. Retinal pigment epithelial cells express antimicrobial peptide lysozyme – A novel mechanism of innate immune defense of the blood-retina barrier. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2021;62(7):21

20.  Du X, Penalva R, Little K, Kissenpgennig A, Chen M, Xu H. Deletion of Socs3 in LysM⁺ Cells and Cx3cr1 Resulted in Age-dependent Development of Retinal Microgliopathy. Mol Neurodegener. 2021 Feb 18;16(1):9.   

21.  Little K, Llorián-Salvador M, Tang M, Du X, Marry S, Chen M, Xu H. Macrophage to myofibroblast transition contributes to subretinal fibrosis secondary to neovascular age-related macular degeneration. J Neuroinflammation. 2020 Nov 25;17(1):355.

22.  Hombrebueno JR, Lynch A, Byrne EM, Obasanmi G, Kissenpfennig A, Chen M, Xu H. Hyaloid Vasculature as a Major Source of STAT3+ (Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 3) Myeloid Cells for Pathogenic Retinal Neovascularization in Oxygen-Induced Retinopathy. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 2020 Dec;40(12):e367-e379.

23.  Liu J, Tang M, Harkin K, Du X, Luo C, Chen M, Xu H. Single-cell RNA sequencing study of retinal immune regulators identified CD47 and CD59a expression in photoreceptors-Implications in subretinal immune regulation. J Neurosci Res. 2020,98(7):1498-1513.

24.  Little K, Salvador ML, Tang M, Du X, O'Shaughnessy, Mcllwance G, Chen M, Xu H. A two-stage laser-induced mouse model of subretinal fibrosis secondary to choroidal neovascularization. Transl Vis Sci Technol. 2020, Vol.9, 3.

25.  Chen M, Luo C, Zhao J, Devarajan G, Xu H. Immune regulation in the aging retina. Prog Retin Eye Res. 2019 Mar;69:159-172.

26.  Augustine J, Pavlou S, Ali IH, Harkin K, Ozaki E, Campbell M, Stitt A, Xu H, Chen M. IL-33 deficiency causes persistent inflammation and severe neurodegeneration in retinal detachment. J Neuroinflammation. 2019,16:251. doi.org/10.1186/s12974-019-1625-y

27.  Hombrebueno JR, Cairns L, Dutton LR, Lyons TJ, Brazil DP, Moynagh P, Curtis TM, Xu H. Uncoupled turnover disrupts mitochondrial quality control in diabetic retinopathy. JCI Insight. 2019 Dec 5;4(23):e129760. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.129760.

28.  Chen M, Obasanmi G, Armstrong D, Lavery NJ, Kissenpfennig A, Lois N, Xu H. STAT3 activation in circulating myeloid-derived cells contributes to retinal microvascular dysfunction in diabetes. J Neuroinflammation. 2019, 16:138.

29.  Wang L, Pavlou S, Du X, Bhuckory M, Xu H, Chen M. Glucose transporter 1 critically controls microglial activation through facilitating glycolysis. Mol Neurodegener. 2019 Jan 11;14(1):2.

30.  Little K, Ma JH, Yang N, Chen M, Xu H. Myofibroblasts in macular fibrosis secondary to neovascular age-related macular degeneration – the potential sources and molecular cues for their recruitment and activation. EBioMedicine. 2018 Dec;38:283-291.

31.  Kaarniranta K, Xu H, Kauppinen A. Mechanistical retinal drug targets and challenges. Adv Drug Deliv Rev. 2018 Feb 15;126:177-184.

32.  Akhtar-Schafer I, Wang L, Krohne T, Xu H, langmann T. Modulation of three key innate immune pathways for the most common retinal degenerative diseases. EMBO Mol Med. 2018 2018 Oct;10(10). pii: e8259.

33.  Luckoff A, Scholz R, Sennlaub F, Xu H, Langmann T. Comprehensive analysis of mouse retinal mononuclear phagocytes. Nature Protocols. 2017. 12(6):1136-1150. 

34.  Lechner J, Chen M, Hogg RE, Toth L, Silvestri G, Chakravarthy U, Xu H. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from neovascular age-related macular degeneration patients produce higher levels of chemokines CCL2(MCP-1) and CXCL8 (IL-8). J Neuroinflammation. 2017; 14:42.

35.  Chen, M., Rajapakse, D., Fraczek, M., Luo, C., Forrester, J. V. and Xu, H. Retinal pigment epithelial cell multinucleation in the aging eye – a mechanism to repair damage and maintain homoeostasis. Aging Cell. 2016. 15(3):436-445.

36.  <!--[endif]-->Forrester JV and Xu H. Good news – bad news: the Yin and Yang of immune privilege in the eye. Front Immun. 2012,3:338.   

37.Forrester JV, Xu H, Kuffova L, McMenamin P, Dick AD. (Review) Dendritic cell physiology and function in the Eye. Immunol Rev. 2010. 234(1)282-304.

38.  Xu H, Chen M, Forrester JV. Para-inflammation in the aging retina. Prog Retin Eye Res. 2009. 28(5):348-368.

39.  Xu H, Manivannan A, Crane IJ, Dawson R, Liversidge J. Critical but divergent roles for CD62L and CD44 in directing monocyte trafficking in vivo during inflammation. Blood. 2008, 112(4):1166-74.

40.  Xu H, Chen M, Manivannan A, Lois N, Forrester JV. Age-dependent accumulation of lipofuscin in perivascular and subretinal microglia in experimental mice. Aging Cell. 2008. 7; 58-68.

41.  Xu H, Chen M, Mayer EJ, Forrester JV, Dick AD. Turnover of retinal microglia in adult experimental mouse. GLIA. 2007. 55; 1189-98.

42.  Xu H, Manivannan A, Dawson R, Crane IJ, Mack M, Sharp P and Liversidge J. Differentiation to the CCR2+ Inflammatory Phenotype In Vivo Is a Constitutive, Time-Limited Property of Blood Monocytes and Is Independent of Local Inflammatory Mediators. J Immunol. 2005. 175:6915-23.

43.  Xu H, Kurihara H, Ito T, Kikuchi H, Yoshida K, Yamanokuchi H, Asari A. The keratan sulfate disaccharide gal(6S03) b1,4 glcNAc(6S03) modulates IL12 production by macrophages in murine Thy-1 type autoimmune disease. J Biol. Chem. 2005. 280:20879-86