Renhe Xu, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor Xu is a founder and Scientific Advisor of ImStem. He is currently serving as Associate Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at University of Macau. In the past, he had served as Associate Professor for eight years at the Department of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Director of Stem Cell Institute of University of Connecticut Health Center and senior scientist for seven years at WiCell Research Institute.
Professor Xu is a world-renowned scientist specializing in stem cell pluripotency and differentiation. He has made several breakthroughs that accelerate the progress in stem cell field. During his time at WiCell institute, Professor Xu established an embryonic stem cell (ES) feeder-free and serum-free culture system, which has become the mainstream cell culture system around the world. He is one of key inventors of ImStem’s T-MSC differentiation technology that is fundamental in making T-MSC into an off the shelf cell therapy product. He has recently developed an advanced method of differentiating pluripotent stem cells into MSCs under 3D spheroid culture conditions and a room temperature storage technology for stem cells. This technology could significantly eliminate restrictions and reduce the cost of stem cell manufacturing, storage and transportation which make stem cell therapy more accessible to patients. Professor Xu has won many awards and prizes, including First Place of Bank of China’s Trophy One Million Dollar Macau Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition; International Research Award of Royan Institute; Connecticut United for Research Excellence (CURE). To date, he has authored over 100 publications and been granted over 10 patents around the globe.
Professor Xu received his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo, Japan, followed with postdoctoral trainings at both Bar-Ilan University in Israel and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States. Professor Xu received BM and MA in medical sciences from South China University and Central South University in China, respectively.