Xiaodong Feng
Researcher at the State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases in Chengdu whose group studies how cells in the mouth respond to stress, from chemotherapy tolerance in oral cancer to inflammation in gum disease
State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases and Research Unit of Oral Carcinogenesis and Management, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University (papers 2025–2026; at the time of the study)
Xiaodong Feng was senior author of a 2026 Atlas study on why some cancer cells survive cisplatin, a widely used chemotherapy drug (RAO2026). The team ran a genome-wide CRISPR screen, switching off genes one by one across the genome to see which ones change how cells cope with the drug. The surprise was that blocking mTOR, the growth-control kinase, made the cells more tolerant of cisplatin, not less, because it switched on protective autophagy, the cell's recycling system. The amino acid transporter SLC7A5, which brings leucine and other large amino acids into the cell, sat at the centre of this circuit. Adding extra leucine made tumour cells carrying SLC7A5 sensitive to cisplatin again. The work was done in cancer cells and tumour models, not in patients.
The finding matters for drug combinations: mTOR inhibitors are sometimes proposed alongside chemotherapy, and this study suggests that in some tumours they could do the opposite of what is hoped.
PubMed lists Feng at the State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University. A 2025 paper from the same laboratory in International Immunopharmacology, with Pengcheng Rao among the co-authors, showed that a stress response in the gum-lining cells drives inflammation and bone loss in periodontitis. No personal institutional page could be checked, so further details of training and title are not shown.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | M | An SLC7A5-dependent nutrient-sensing circuit overcomes cisplatin tolerance via mTOR-autophagy signaling. RAO2026 Senior author: led the CRISPR screen study showing that mTOR inhibition can protect cancer cells from cisplatin through autophagy, with SLC7A5 and leucine as a way to reverse it. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 1
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Xiaodong Feng.
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- Pengcheng Rao Researcher at the West China Hospital of Stomatology in Chengdu who led a genome-wide CRISPR screen showing that switching off mTOR can help cancer cells tolerate cisplatin
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