Huji Xu is Professor of Medicine at the Naval Medical University (NMU) and Tsinghua University. At present, he is the Executive Associate Director of the National Key Laboratory for Immunity and Inflammation and the Chairman of Rheumatology & Immunology at Shanghai Changzheng Hospital.

Prof. Xu graduated from NMU, where he also completed his residency and internship. He then went to Australia to pursue his PhD in rheumatology and clinical immunology. Following his PhD, he worked at Flinders Medical Centre and the Queensland Institute of Medical Research. Before returning to China full-time, he was an R.D. Wright Fellow of the Australian National Health & Medical Research Council and a Professor at the University of Queensland.

In 2003, Prof. Xu was appointed as the founding chair of the Department of Rheumatology and Immunology at Shanghai Changzheng Hospital, affiliated with NMU. Under his leadership, the department quickly developed into one of the largest clinical and research centers for rheumatology in China. In 2016, Prof. Xu was appointed as the founding Executive Dean of the School of Clinical Medicine at Tsinghua University.

Prof. Xu’s research has spanned many fields, including rheumatology, human genetics, and vaccinology. Currently, his major research interest is in the pathogenesis of rheumatic diseases. He is a pioneer in applying allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy to refractory autoimmune diseases. Over the last 10 years, his research has resulted in several major publications in journals such as Cell, Nature, Nature Genetics, Lancet Rheumatology, Arthritis & Rheumatology, Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.