Personal Statement

Xiaojiang Cui, PhD, obtained his doctorate in molecular biology from the University of Texas at Austin. He received his postdoctoral training at the renowned Baylor College of Medicine Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center in Houston where he later became an instructor. Cui studied growth factor signaling in the development of the mammary gland and breast cancer. His findings have important implications for understanding hormonal therapy response and the increased breast cancer risk after hormone replacement therapy. In 2007, he joined the Providence John Wayne Cancer Institute in Santa Monica as an assistant professor and directed the institute's translational breast cancer research program. Later, Cui joined Cedars-Sinai as an associate professor of surgery and leads the translational breast research laboratory and breast tissue engineering research. His current research directions focus on breast cancer development and metastasis, therapy resistance and stem cells. He has received competitive funding from the U.S. Department of Defense, the National Institutes of Health, the Komen Foundation and other agencies. He has published extensively in respected peer-reviewed journals and has served on numerous grant review panels. Cui's research goals are to decipher the mechanisms of cancer metastasis and therapeutic resistance and to develop effective anticancer therapy.