Xing Dai

•Professor, Department of Biological Chemistry

•Professor, Department of Dermatology

Biography

Xing Dai, Ph.D., is Professor in the Department of Biological Chemistry and the Department of Dermatology at the University of California, Irvine. A scholar in the field of epithelial biology, Dai has spent over two decades studying the molecular mechanisms that control stem cell activity, tissue development, and regeneration in skin and mammary glands. Dai received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Chicago in 1995, followed by postdoctoral training at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Chicago.

Dai's research focuses on transcriptional regulation of epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity and its role in tissue homeostasis and disease. Dai's laboratory has made contributions to understanding how transcription factors such as Ovol1, Ovol2, and Zeb1 regulate stem cell differentiation, tissue morphogenesis, and inflammatory skin conditions including psoriasis and atopic dermatitis. The laboratory employs integrative approaches combining mouse genetics, single-cell genomics, and computational modeling to investigate epithelial stem cell behavior in development, wound healing, and aging.

Dai has served in numerous leadership roles at UC Irvine, including Vice Chair of the Department of Biological Chemistry from 2008 to 2011 and Associate Director of the Systems Biology Core for the NIH/NIAMS P30 Skin Biology Resource-based Center. Dai has been a standing member of the NIH ACTS/SCTS Study Section since 2020 and serves on the Editorial Board of Stem Cells and Tissue Barriers. Dai has mentored over 20 doctoral students and numerous postdoctoral fellows, undergraduate researchers, and visiting scholars throughout a career spanning research, teaching, and service.

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Education

B.S. in Biology, East China Normal University, 1985
M.S. in Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1989
Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Chicago, 1995

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Distinctions

Howard Hughes Medical Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship, 1995
NIAMS/NIH Independent Scientist Award, 2004
March of Dimes Basil O'Connor Award, 2001
Departmental award for outstanding performance in the field of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Chicago (best thesis award), 1995
Honorable Mention, School of Medicine Outstanding Faculty Research Award, 2022
Outstanding Author, the Luminous Cup, Xin Min Newspaper, P. R. China, 2017
UCI School of Medicine Excellence in Teaching Award, 2006-2008

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Areas of Expertise

Epithelial Stem Cell Biology
Wnt Signaling Pathway
Chromatin Regulation
Transcriptional Repression
Epithelial-Mesenchymal Plasticity
Skin Barrier Homeostasis
Mammary Gland Development

Recent Publications

Bex J., Peter V., Saji C., Dupont C., Lavernhe M., Jin S., Chapart L., Gautier G., Thibaudeau O., Thaminy M.K., Tchen J., Simon Q., Dai X., Miyake K., Karasuyama H., Jiang J.X., Naidoo K., Benhamou M., Blank U., Monteiro R.C., et al., “Basophils drive the resolution and promote wound healing in adult and aged mice” (opens in new tab), Journal of Experimental Medicine, vol. 223, 2026.
Sun P., Kraus C.N., Zhao W., Xu J., Suh S., Nguyen Q., Jia Y., Nair A., Oakes M., Tinoco R., Shiu J., Sun B., Elsensohn A., Atwood S.X., Nie Q., Dai X., “Spatial and Single-Cell Transcriptomics Reveal Keratinocytes as Key Players in Vulvar Lichen Sclerosus Pathogenesis” (opens in new tab), Journal of Investigative Dermatology, vol. 146, pp. 678-698.e5, 2026.
Chen, Z., Dragan, M., Sun, P., Haensel, D., Vu, R., Cui, L., Zhu, P., Yang, N., Shi, Y., Dai, X., “An AhR-Ovol1-Id1 regulatory axis in keratinocytes promotes skin homeostasis against atopic dermatitis” (opens in new tab), Cellular and Molecular Immunology, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 300-315, 2025.
Ramirez, C.B., Ahn, I.S., Rubtsova, V.I., Cely, I., Le, J., Kim, J., Jung, S., Kelly, M.E., Kim, Y., Bae, H., Song, W.S., Alam, Y.H., Zhang, G., Diamante, G., Chao, A., Hoffner, L., Anica, A., Le, I., Lopez, M.L., Tamburini, I.J., et al., “Circulating glycerate predicts resilience to fructose-induced hepatic steatosis” (opens in new tab), Cell Metabolism, vol. 37, no. 5, pp. 1223-1234.e5, 2025.
Zhu, Y., Zhao, Y., Wen, J., Liu, S., Huang, T., Hatial, I., Peng, X., Janabi, H.A., Huang, G., Mittlesteadt, J., Cheng, M., Bhardwaj, A., Ashfeld, B.L., Kao, K.R., Maeda, D.Y., Dai, X., Wiest, O., Blagg, B.S.J., Lu, X., Cheng, L., et al., “Targeting the chromatin effector Pygo2 promotes cytotoxic T cell responses and overcomes immunotherapy resistance in prostate cancer” (opens in new tab), Science Immunology, vol. 8, no. 81, pp. eade4656, 2023.
Dragan, M., Chen, Z., Li, Y., Le, J., Sun, P., Haensel, D., Sureshchandra, S., Pham, A., Lu, E., Pham, K.T., Verlande, A., Vu, R., Gutierrez, G., Li, W., Jang, C., Masri, S., Dai, X., “Ovol1/2 loss-induced epidermal defects elicit skin immune activation and alter global metabolism” (opens in new tab), EMBO Reports, vol. 24, pp. e56214, 2023.
Vu, R., Dragan, M., Sun, P., Werner, S., Dai, X., “Epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity and endothelial-mesenchymal transition in cutaneous wound healing” (opens in new tab), Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology, vol. 15, no. 8, pp. a041237, 2023.
Xing Dai, Sabine Werner, Cheng-Ming Chuong, Maksim Plikus, “Wound Healing: From Bench to Bed Side”, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2023.
Han, Y., Villarreal-Ponce, A., Gutierrez Jr., G., Nguyen, Q., Sun, P., Wu, T., Sui, B., Berx, B., Brabletz, T., Kessenbrock, K., Zeng, Y.A., Watanabe, K., Dai, X., “Coordinate control of basal epithelial cell fate and stem cell maintenance by core EMT transcription factor Zeb1” (opens in new tab), Cell Reports, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 110240, 2022.
Sun, P., Han, Y., Plikus, M., Dai, X., “Altered Epithelial-mesenchymal Plasticity as a Result of Ovol2 Deletion Minimally Impacts the Self-renewal of Adult Mammary Basal Epithelial Cells” (opens in new tab), Journal of Mammary Gland Biology and Neoplasia, vol. 26, pp. 377-386, 2022.
Yu, Z., Yu, Q., Xu, H., Dai, X., Yu, Y., Cui, L., Chen, Y., Gu, J., Zhang, X., Guo, X., Shi, Y., “IL-17A promotes Psoriasis-associated Keratinocyte Proliferation via ACT1-depedent Activation of YAP-AREG Axis” (opens in new tab), Journal of Investigative Dermatology, vol. S0022-202X(22)00201-9, pp. 2343-2352, 2022.
Gutierrez, G., Sun, P., Han, Y., Dai, X., “Defining mammary basal cell transcriptional states using single-cell RNA-sequencing” (opens in new tab), Scientific Reports, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 4893, 2022.
Liu, R., Hu, H., McNeil, M., Xu, J., Bi, X., Lou, P., Guerrero-Juarez, C.F., Dai, X., Plikus, M.V., Shuai, J., Yu, Z., Lv, C., “Dormant Nfatc1 reporter-marked basal stem/progenitor cells contribute to mammary lobuloalveoli formation” (opens in new tab), iScience, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 103982, 2022.
Sun, P., Vu, R., Dragan, M., Haensel, D., Gutierrez, G., Nguyen, Q., Greenberg, E., Chen, Z.Y., Wu, J., Atwood, S., Pearlman, E., Shi, Y.L., Han, W., Kessenbrock, K., Dai, X., “Ovol1 regulates psoriasis-like skin inflammation and epidermal hyperplasia” (opens in new tab), Journal of Investigative Dermatology, vol. 141, no. 6, pp. 1542-1552, 2021.
Dragan, M., Sun, P., Chen, Z.Y., Ma, X., Vu, R., Shi, Y.L., Villalta, S.M., Dai, X., “Epidermis-intrinsic transcription factor Ovol1 coordinately regulates barrier maintenance and neutrophil accumulation in psoriasis-like inflammation” (opens in new tab), Journal of Investigative Dermatology, vol. S0022-202X(21)02089-3, pp. 583-593.e5, 2021.
McNeil, M., Han, Y., Sun, P., Watanabe, K., Jiang, J., Chen, N., Yu, Z., Zhou, B., Dai, X., “Nfatc1's role in mammary epithelial morphogenesis and basal stem/progenitor cell self-renewal” (opens in new tab), Journal of Mammary Gland Biology and Neoplasia, vol. 26, pp. 357-365, 2021.

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Most Cited Publications

Hong, T., Watanabe, K., Ha-Ta, C., Villarreal-Ponce, A., Nie, Q., Dai, X., “An Ovol2-Zeb1 mutual inhibitory circuit governs bidirectional and multi-step transition between epithelial and mesenchymal states” (opens in new tab), Plos Computational Biology, vol. 11, no. 11, pp. e1004569, 2015.
Haensel, D., Dai, X., “Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in cutaneous wound healing: where we are and where we are heading” (opens in new tab), Developmental Dynamics, vol. 247, no. 3, pp. 473-480, 2017.
Haensel, D., Jin, S., Sun, P., Cinco, R., Dragan, M., Nguyen, Q., Cang, Z. X., Gong, Y. W., Vu, R., MacLean, A. L., Kessenbrock, K., Gratton, E., Nie, Q., Dai, X., “Defining epidermal basal cell states during skin homeostasis and wound healing using single-cell transcriptomics” (opens in new tab), Cell Reports, vol. 30, no. 11, pp. 3932-3947.e6, 2020.
Watanabe, K., Villarreal-Ponce, A., Sun, P., Salmans, M. L., Fallahi, M., Andersen, B., Dai, X., “Mammary morphogenesis and regeneration require the inhibition of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition by Ovol2 transcriptional repressor” (opens in new tab), Developmental Cell, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 59-74, 2014.
Dai, X., Schonbaum, C., Degenstein, L., Bai, W., Mahowald, A., Fuchs, E., “The ovo gene required for cutcle formation and oogenesis in flies is involved in hair formation and spermatogenesis in mice” (opens in new tab), Genes and Development, vol. 12, pp. 3452-3463, 1998.
Nair, M., Teng, A., Bilanchone, V., Agrawal, A., Li, B., Dai, X., “Ovol1 regulates the growth arrest of embryonic epidermal progenitor cells and represses c-Myc transcription” (opens in new tab), Journal of Cell Biology, vol. 173, pp. 253-264, 2006.
Gu, B., Sun, P., Yuan, Y., Moraes, R., Li, A., Teng A., Agrawal, A., Rhéaume, C., Bilanchone, B., Veltmaat J. M, Takemaru, K., Millar, S., Lee, E. Y-H. P., Lewis, M. T., Li, B., Dai, X., “Pygo2 expands mammary progenitor cells by regulating histone H3 K4 methylation” (opens in new tab), Journal of Cell Biology, vol. 185, pp. 811-26, 2009.
Lee, B., Villarreal-Ponce, A., Fallahi, M., Ovadia, J., Sun, P., Yu, Q.-C., Ito, S., Sinha, S., Nie, Q., Dai, X., “Transcriptional mechanisms link epithelial plasticity to adhesion and differentiation of epidermal progenitor cells” (opens in new tab), Developmental Cell, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 47-58, 2014.
Vu, R., Jin, S., Sun, P., Haensel, D., Nguyen, Q.H., Dragan, M., Kessenbrock, K., Nie, Q., Dai, X., “Wound healing in aged skin exhibits systems-level alterations in cellular composition and cell-cell communication” (opens in new tab), Cell Reports, vol. 40, no. 5, pp. 111155, 2022.
Gu, B., Watanabe, K., Sun, P., Fallahi, M., Dai, X., “Chromatin effector Pygo2 mediates Wnt-Notch cross-talk to suppress luminal/alveolar potential of mammary stem and basal cells” (opens in new tab), Cell Stem Cell, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 48-61, 2013.

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Contact Information

Email: xdai@uci.edu

Phone: (949) 824-3101

Address: D250 Medical Sciences I

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This profile was created with the help of AI.

Last updated on 5/19/2026.