Xiling Shen, PHD
Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine
About Dr. Xiling Shen
Dr. Shen is a Professor of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology, CPRIT Established Scholar, and Co-Director of the Colorectal Cancer Moon Shot Program at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Previously, he served as the Hawkins Family Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Director of the Woo Center for Big Data and Precision Health at Duke University. He earned his BS, MS, and PhD degrees from Stanford University and received the NSF Faculty CAREER Award while at Cornell University. Dr. Shen has held leadership roles in national cancer research initiatives, including serving as Steering Committee Chair of the NCI Patient-Derived Model of Cancer Consortium, Co-Chair of the NCI Tissue Engineering Collaborative, and Cancer Track Chair of Biomedical Engineering Society Meeting. He has founded several biotechnology companies that have progressed to clinical trials. Notably, under his leadership as CEO, one of these companies secured $89 million in Series A financing and was recognized by Business Insider as one of the top 16 life science startups and top 73 overall startups in 2023. His laboratory focuses on developing innovative technologies and exploring precision medicine through a systems biology approach, with a particular emphasis on cancer, stem cell, and the gut-brain axis.
Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Co-Director of CRC Moonshot, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
CPRIT Professor, GI Medical Oncology-Research, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
Education & Training
Degree-Granting Education
| 2008 | Stanford University, US, Electrical Engineering, Ph.D |
| 2001 | Stanford University, US, Electrical Engineering, M.S |
| 2001 | Stanford University, US, Electrical Engineering, B.S |
Postgraduate Training
| 2008-2009 | Postdoctoral Fellow, Bioengineering, UC Berkeley |
Experience & Service
Faculty Academic Appointments
Professor/Chief Scientific Officer, The Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation, Los Angeles, California, 2021 - 2024
Director, Sherry and John Woo Center for Big Data and Precision Health, Duke University, 2018 - 2021
Hawkins Family Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, 2015 - 2021
Associate Professor, Center for Genomics and Computation Biology, Duke University, 2015 - 2021
Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University, 2013 - 2015
Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell University, 2009 - 2015
RF Designer, Texas Instruments, 2003 - 2004
Design Engineer, Barcelona Design, Inc, 2001 - 2003
Other Professional Positions
Scientific Founder, Xilis, Inc, Business Insider's most promising startups of 2023, 2023 - Present
Founder and Chairman of Board, OnVagus, Inc, 2023 - Present
Mentor, NCI/IBM Combo Therapies Ideas Lab and AI-Drive Drug Discovery Group, 2022 - Present
Editorial Board, In Vitro Models, 2020 - Present
Standing Member, NIH Modeling and Analysis of Biological Systems (MABS) Study Section study section, 2020 - 2023
Faculty Fellow, Jewish National Fund, 2019 - Present
Founder and CEO, Xilis, Inc, 2019 - 2023
Review Editor, Frontiers in Oncology, 2019 - 2021
Chair, NCI Cancer Tissue Engineering Collaborative Annual Meeting, 2019 - 2021
Chair, Steering Committee, NCI, 2018 - 2020
Chair, The Cancer Technologies Track, Biomedical Engineering Society Meeting 2019, 2018 - 2019
Scientific Advisor, National Cancer Institute, 2017 - 2019
Principal Investigator, NSF Early Career Award, 2014 - 2019
Associate Director, Cornell Stem Cell Program, 2012 - 2015
Program Chair, International Workshop on Bio-Design Automation (IWBDA), 2010 - 2012
Mayfield Fellow, Stanford University, 2000 - 2001
Professional Memberships
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Aliesha Garret, Naama Darzi, Deshmukh A, Rosenfeld N, Goldman O, Adler L, Bab-Dinitz E, Singer O, Najafabadi AH, Wong CW, Bose S, Randon PM, Bustamante F, Larios R, Brandis A, Mehlman T, Smaglo B, Chang P, Oliva J, Haymaker C, Nagawekar L, Wu SR, Huang Y, Shen A, Vora A, Padilla JF, Pfeffer A, Sutherland G, Starr M, Zimmers T, Zhu Y, Morizio J, Erez A, Shen X. Vagal blockade of the brain-liver axis deters cancer-associated cachexia. Cell Press 188(18):6044-6063.e24, 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 40780194.
- Bose S, Barroso M, Chheda MG, Clevers H, Elez E, Kaochar S, Kopetz SE, Li XN, Meric-Bernstam F, Meyer CA, Mou H, Naegle KM, Pera MF, Perova Z, Politi KA, Raphael BJ, Robson P, Sears RC, Tabernero J, Tuveson DA, Welm AL, Welm BE, Willey CD, Salnikow K, Chuang JH, Shen X. A path to translation: How 3D patient tumor avatars enable next generation precision oncology. Cancer Cell 40(12):1448-1453, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 36270276.
- Dohlman AB, Klug J, Mesko M, Gao IH, Lipkin SM, Shen X, Iliev ID. A pan-cancer mycobiome analysis reveals fungal involvement in gastrointestinal and lung tumors. Cell 185(20):3807-3822.e12, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 36179671.
- Wu Y, Wong CW, Chiles EN, Mellinger AL, Bae H, Jung S, Peterson T, Wang J, Negrete M, Huang Q, Wang L, Jang C, Muddiman DC, Su X, Williamson I, Shen X. Glycerate from intestinal fructose metabolism induces islet cell damage and glucose intolerance. Cell Metab 34(7):1042-1053.e6, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35688154.
- Ding S, Hsu C, Wang Z, Natesh NR, Millen R, Negrete M, Giroux N, Rivera GO, Dohlman A, Bose S, Rotstein T, Spiller K, Yeung A, Sun Z, Jiang C, Xi R, Wilkin B, Randon PM, Williamson I, Nelson DA, Delubac D, Oh S, Rupprecht G, Isaacs J, Jia J, Chen C, Shen JP, Kopetz S, McCall S, Smith A, Gjorevski N, Walz AC, Antonia S, Marrer-Berger E, Clevers H, Hsu D, Shen X. Patient-derived micro-organospheres enable clinical precision oncology. Cell Stem Cell 29(6):905-917.e6, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35508177.
- Kadur Lakshminarasimha Murthy P, Xi R, Arguijo D, Everitt JI, Kocak DD, Kobayashi Y, Bozec A, Vicent S, Ding S, Crawford GE, Hsu D, Tata PR, Reddy T, Shen X. Epigenetic basis of oncogenic-Kras-mediated epithelial-cellular proliferation and plasticity. Dev Cell 57(3):310-328.e9, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35134344.
- Dohlman AB, Arguijo Mendoza D, Ding S, Gao M, Dressman H, Iliev ID, Lipkin SM, Shen X. The cancer microbiome atlas: a pan-cancer comparative analysis to distinguish tissue-resident microbiota from contaminants. Cell Host Microbe 29(2):281-298.e5, 2021. e-Pub 2021. PMID: 33382980.
- Huang Q, Cohen MA, Alsina FC, Devlin G, Garrett A, McKey J, Havlik P, Rakhilin N, Wang E, Xiang K, Mathews P, Wang L, Bock C, Ruthig V, Wang Y, Negrete M, Wong CW, Murthy PKL, Zhang S, Daniel AR, Kirsch DG, Kang Y, Capel B, Asokan A, Silver DL, Jaenisch R, Shen X. Intravital imaging of mouse embryos. Science 368(6487):181-186, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32273467.
- Shen X. An imprecise path to precision medicine. Nat Med 26(1):14, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 31932784.
- Rakhilin N, Garrett A, Eom CY, Chavez KR, Small DM, Daniel AR, Kaelberer MM, Mejooli MA, Huang Q, Ding S, Kirsch DG, Bohorquez DV, Nishimura N, Barth BB, Shen X. An intravital window to image the colon in real time. Nat Commun 10(1):5647, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 31827103.
- Kaelberer MM, Buchanan KL, Klein ME, Barth BB, Montoya MM, Shen X, Bohorquez DV. A gut-brain neural circuit for nutrient sensory transduction. Science 361(6408), 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 30237325.
- Bu P, Chen KY, Xiang K, Johnson C, Crown SB, Rakhilin N, Ai Y, Wang L, Xi R, Astapova I, Han Y, Li J, Barth BB, Lu M, Gao Z, Mines R, Zhang L, Herman M, Hsu D, Zhang GF, Shen X. Aldolase B-Mediated Fructose Metabolism Drives Metabolic Reprogramming of Colon Cancer Liver Metastasis. Cell Metab 27(6):1249-1262.e4, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 29706565.
- Rakhilin N, Barth B, Choi J, Munoz NL, Kulkarni S, Jones JS, Small DM, Cheng YT, Cao Y, LaVinka C, Kan E, Dong X, Spencer M, Pasricha P, Nishimura N, Shen X. Simultaneous optical and electrical in vivo analysis of the enteric nervous system. Nat Commun 7:11800, 2016. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 27270085.
- Srinivasan T, Walters J, Bu P, Than EB, Tung KL, Chen KY, Panarelli N, Milsom J, Augenlicht L, Lipkin SM, Shen X. NOTCH Signaling Regulates Asymmetric Cell Fate of Fast- and Slow-Cycling Colon Cancer-Initiating Cells. Cancer Res 76(11):3411-21, 2016. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 27197180.
- Bu P, Wang L, Chen KY, Srinivasan T, Murthy PK, Tung KL, Varanko AK, Chen HJ, Ai Y, King S, Lipkin SM, Shen X. A miR-34a-Numb Feedforward Loop Triggered by Inflammation Regulates Asymmetric Stem Cell Division in Intestine and Colon Cancer. Cell Stem Cell 18(2):189-202, 2016. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 26849305.
- Chen HJ, Sun J, Huang Z, Hou H Jr, Arcilla M, Rakhilin N, Joe DJ, Choi J, Gadamsetty P, Milsom J, Nandakumar G, Longman R, Zhou XK, Edwards R, Chen J, Chen KY, Bu P, Wang L, Xu Y, Munroe R, Abratte C, Miller AD, Gumus ZH, Shuler M, Nishimura N, Edelmann W, Shen X, Lipkin SM. Comprehensive models of human primary and metastatic colorectal tumors in immunodeficient and immunocompetent mice by chemokine targeting. Nat Biotechnol 33(6):656-60, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26006007.
- Bu P, Chen KY, Chen JH, Wang L, Walters J, Shin YJ, Goerger JP, Sun J, Witherspoon M, Rakhilin N, Li J, Yang H, Milsom J, Lee S, Zipfel W, Jin MM, Gumus ZH, Lipkin SM, Shen X. A microRNA miR-34a-regulated bimodal switch targets Notch in colon cancer stem cells. Cell Stem Cell 12(5):602-15, 2013. e-Pub 2013. PMID: 23642368.
Patient Reviews
CV information above last modified July 22, 2026