Catherine Xie, PhD

Catherine Xie is an MD/PhD student pursuing her graduate studies in Immunobiology in the laboratory of Dr Jordan Pober. Catherine earned her BS in Bioengineering and an English minor from the California Institute of Technology. As a first year undergraduate, she joined the lab of Dr Frances Arnold in protein engineering. Catherine developed a passion for human immunology while working in the lab of Dr Garry Fathman at Stanford as a summer research fellow prior to joining the lab of Dr David Baltimore, studying the role of microRNAs in leukemia pathogenesis. She earned an MPhil in Clinical Science (Translational Medicine and Therapeutics) at the University of Cambridge as a Gates Cambridge Scholar. In the lab of Dr Morris Brown, she studied gain-of-function mutations of the CaV1.3 calcium channel implicated in aldosterone-producing adenomas and found that selective CaV1.3 blockade may offer a new targeted way of treating primary hyperaldosteronism.

Catherine's graduate studies focus on studying how alloantibody and complement-mediated intracellular signaling activates and alters human endothelial cells, enhancing their immunogenicity and potentiating acute and chronic transplant rejection. Using in vitro and in vivo models of human endothelial cells and allogeneic T cell responses in addition to studying patient samples, her work in transplant immunology points to potentially new and exciting therapeutic targets for the treatment of allograft rejection and other complement-mediated pathologies.

Catherine's interest for human immunology stems from her scientific fascination with the immune system and desire to leverage new knowledge of the immune system into druggable targets. She aspires to be a physician-scientist who studies mechanisms underlying human immunological disease and translates findings into novel therapies and diagnostics for patients.

Fun facts about me: Catherine loves to explore the outdoors through hiking and running. She ran her first marathon in Lake Placid (2018) and ran the NYC marathon (2019) to raise awareness for Gilda's Club NYC, a non-profit that supports cancer patients and their families. Her favorite podcasts are Revisionist History and Freakonomics.