Dr. Xinzhu Pu has a Ph.D. in Toxicology from Purdue University, a Master's in Environmental Health from Beijing Medical University in Beijing, China, and an M.D. from Anhui Medical University in Hefei, China. He also is a certified Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology (DABT). Dr. Pu has been an Assistant Professor at Beijing Medical University, a research and teaching assistant while at Purdue University, and then a Postdoctoral Fellow and Research Scientist with the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at Indiana University in Indianapolis. He came to Boise State University in 2010 where he conducts research in the Department of Biological Sciences. Dr. Pu's research interests include the role of Kupffer cells in liver cancer development, the role of oxidative stress in acrylonitrile-induced brain tumors, the development of novel antimicrobial agents targeting quorum sensing in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and the discovery and development of natural drug products from sagebrush plants. He studies the evolutionary diversity of plant secondary metabolites (PSMs) and the evolutionary diversity of receptor targets and mechanisms of absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity (ADMET) of PSMs in animals, metabolomic profiling of PSMs in sagebrush using a High Performance Liquid Chromatography–Tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) approach, and LC-MS/MS based proteomics in herbivores exposed to PSMs.
Articles
Inhibition of Snowshoe Hare Succinate Dehydrogenase Activity as a Mechanism of Deterrence for Papyriferic Acid in Birch (with Jennifer Forbey, Dong Xu, Knut Kielland, and John Bryant), Journal of Chemical Ecology (2011)
The plant secondary metabolite papyriferic acid (PA) deters browsing by snowshoe hares (Lepus americanus) on...
Toxic Scat: A Mechanism to Prevent Overdosing on Plant Chemicals by Grouse (with Jennifer Sorensen Forbey and Graham Frye), Grouse News (2011)
Although abundant and accessible, plants pose significant challenges to herbivores. The high fiber content and...
Oxidative Stress and Oxidative Damage in Chemical Carcinogenesis (with James E. Klaunig, Zemin Wang, and Shaoyu Zhou), Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology (2011)
Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are induced through a variety of endogenous and exogenous sources. Overwhelming...
Acrylonitrile-Induced Oxidative Stress and Oxidative DNA Damage in Male Sprague-Dawley Rats (with Lisa M. Kamendulis and James E. Klaunig), Toxicological Sciences (2009)
Studies have demonstrated that the induction of oxidative stress may be involved in brain tumor...
Dissertation
Impact of Soil Properties on Bioavailabilities of Organic Chemicals, ETD Collection for Purdue University (2004)
To examine the impact of soil properties on the bioavailabilities of soil-bound organic chemicals, three...
Presentations
All Leaves Are Not Created Equal: Variation Among Leaves in Chemical Defenses and Nutritional Quality (with Xochi Campos, Amy C. Ulappa, and Jennifer S. Forbey), College of Arts and Sciences Poster Presentations (2011)
Coevolution among plants and herbivores has led to variation in plant defenses and herbivore foraging....
Developing New Methods to Quantify Stress in Wildlife Using Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry (with Brandon Harper and Jennifer Forbey), College of Arts and Sciences Poster Presentations (2011)
Stress levels in wildlife species are an accurate indicator of an animal’s well-being and can...