Ming Xu

Impact

Ming Xu is an Associate Professor in the Masonic Institute on the Biology of Aging and Metabolism and the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics at the University of Minnesota, which he joined in 2024 after six years as an Assistant Professor at the UConn Center on Aging. He trained as a postdoctoral fellow with James Kirkland at the Mayo Clinic's Kogod Center on Aging, where he worked on cellular senescence in age-related physical and metabolic dysfunction. He is first author of the 2018 Nature Medicine study 'Senolytics improve physical function and increase lifespan in old age', and a co-author of work on targeting cellular senescence to prevent age-related bone loss (Nature Medicine, 2017) and on fisetin as a senotherapeutic that extends health and lifespan (EBioMedicine, 2018). His independent laboratory developed an inducible p21-Cre mouse model to monitor and eliminate p21-highly-expressing senescent cells in vivo, and reported that intermittent clearance of these cells extends lifespan and physical function in mice (Cell Metabolism, 2024) and alleviates obesity-related insulin resistance. His work continues on senescent cell heterogeneity and interventions to extend healthspan.

Metrics

• h-index 31 · google scholar as of 2026-09-23 source ↗

Research funding

3 NIH awards · USD 1M total NIH RePORTER ↗

• Targeting p21-Highly Expressing Cells to Increase Lifespan and Healthspan in Old Age National Institute on Aging · 2025 · USD 451K
• Targeting p21-Highly Expressing Cells to Increase Lifespan and Healthspan in Old Age National Institute on Aging · 2026 · USD 451K
• Targeting p21-positive Senescent Cells in vivo for Alleviating Metabolic and Physical Dysfunction National Institute on Aging · 2024 · USD 407K

Links

Research fields

Associated labs