Computational & Systems Biology Program

The Joao Xavier Lab

Research

Joao Xavier, PhD

Member, Computational & Systems Biology Program

We combine computation and experiment to investigate how cells interact with each other to produce complex cell group behaviors.

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Featured News

Finding

Systems biologist Joao Xavier in his lab

MSK Study Is the First to Link Microbiota to Dynamics of the Human Immune System

MSK researchers have shown for the first time that the concentration of different types of immune cells in the blood changes in relation to the presence of different bacterial strains in the gut.

At Work: Computational Biologist Joao Xavier

Computational biologist Joao Xavier combines computer models and laboratory experimentation to understand how cells interact.

Turning to Bacteria for Clues

Several Memorial Sloan Kettering investigators are focused on the study of bacteria, which can teach us much about human health, and about cancer in particular.

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Publications Highlights

Ecological management of the microbiota in patients with cancer
Xavier JB
Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology, 2025

Oral bacteria relative abundance in faeces increases due to gut microbiota depletion and is linked with patient outcomes
Liao C, Rolling T, Djukovic A, Fei T, Mishra V, Liu H, Lindberg C, Dai L, Zhai B, Peled JU, van den Brink MRM, Hohl TM, Xavier JB
Nature Microbiology, 2024

The Ratio of Key Metabolic Transcripts Is a Predictive Biomarker of Breast Cancer Metastasis to the Lung
Mathur D, Liao C, Lin W, La Ferlita A, Alaimo S, Taylor S, Zhong Y, Iacobuzio-Donahue C, Ferro A, Xavier JB
Cancer Research, 2023

The TaxUMAP atlas: Efficient display of large clinical microbiome data reveals ecological competition in protection against bacteremia
Schluter J, Djukovic A, Taylor BP, Yan J, Duan C, Hussey GA, Liao C, Sharma S, Fontana E, Amoretti LA, Wright RJ, Dai A, Peled JU, Taur Y, Perales MA, Siranosian BA, Bhatt AS, van den Brink MRM, Pamer EG, Xavier JB
Cell Host & Microbe, 2023

The gut microbiota is associated with immune cell dynamics in humans
Schluter J, Peled JU, Taylor BP, Markey KA, Smith M, Taur Y, Niehus R, Staffas A, Dai A, Fontana E, Amoretti LA, Wright RJ, Morjaria S, Fenelus M, Pessin MS, Chao NJ, Lew M, Bohannon L, Bush A, Sung AD, Hohl TM, Perales MA, van den Brink MRM, Xavier JB
Nature, 2020

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People

Joao Xavier, PhD

Member, Computational & Systems Biology Program

Systems biologist Joao Xavier combines experimental and computational approaches to study diverse problems relevant to cancer: how the microbiome influences cancer and cancer treatment, how cancer cells metastasize, and how metabolic fluxes command the behavior of living cells.
PhD, Universidade Nova de Lisboa

xavierj@mskcc.org: Email Address
646-888-3195: Office Phone

Members

Pranali Bendale

Research Technician

Andras Bimbo-Szuhai

Research Technician

Ana Djukovic

Senior Research Scientist

Maddie Gunnell

Administrative Assistant

Qixiu Han

Graduate Student

Heesoo Jeong

Research Scholar

Diego Kaune

Research Technician

Sharon Li

Research Technician

Chen Liao

Research Scholar

Deepti Mathur

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Vishwas Mishra

Graduate Student

Carlos Pardo De La Hoz

Research Scholar

Sneh Sharma

Lab Manager

Isaac Stamper

Computational Biologist

Benjamin Wucher

Research Scholar

Farah Abdul-Rahman

Research Scholar

Kerry Boyle

Graduate Student

Vanni Bucci

Nathaniel Campbell

Graduate Student

William Chang

Graduate Student

Yanyan Chen

Research Scholar

Katharine Coyte

Laura de Vargas Roditi

Graduate Student

Maxime Deforet

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Henri Estanbouli

Laboratory Technician

Lucas Evans

Admin Assistant II

Carlos Carmona Fontaine

Research Fellow

Silja Heilmann

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Trinasia Kelly

Administrative Assistant

Wendy Lin

Graduate Student

Chloe Lindberg

Laboratory Technician

Jonas Schlueter

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Jonathan Sia

Research Fellow

Bradford Taylor

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Dave van Ditmarsch

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Jinyuan Yan

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Achievements

Director's New Innovator Award, National Institutes of Health (2011)
Biofilm Young Investigator Award, Center for Biofilm Engineering (2010)

Open Positions

To learn more about available postdoctoral opportunities, please visit our Career Center

To learn more about compensation and benefits for postdoctoral researchers at MSK, please visit Resources for Postdocs

Get in Touch

xavierj@mskcc.org

Lab Head Email
646-888-3195

Office Phone
646-422-0717

Office Fax
646-888-3239

Lab Phone
646-422-0717

Lab Fax

Disclosures

Members of the MSK Community often work with pharmaceutical, device, biotechnology, and life sciences companies, and other organizations outside of MSK, to find safe and effective cancer treatments, to improve patient care, and to educate the health care community. These activities outside of MSK further our mission, provide productive collaborations, and promote the practical application of scientific discoveries.

MSK requires doctors, faculty members, and leaders to report (“disclose”) the relationships and financial interests they have with external entities. As a commitment to transparency with our community, we make that information available to the public. Not all disclosed interests and relationships present conflicts of interest. MSK reviews all disclosed interests and relationships to assess whether a conflict of interest exists and whether formal COI management is needed.

Joao Xavier discloses the following relationships and financial interests:

Oficina Design
Fiduciary Role / Position

The information published here is a complement to other publicly reported data and is for a specific annual disclosure period. There may be differences between information on this and other public sites as a result of different reporting periods and/or the various ways relationships and financial interests are categorized by organizations that publish such data.

This page and data include information for a specific MSK annual disclosure period (January 1, 2024 through disclosure submission in spring 2025). This data reflects interests that may or may not still exist. This data is updated annually.

Learn more about MSK’s COI policies here. For questions regarding MSK’s COI-related policies and procedures, email MSK’s Compliance Office at ecoi@mskcc.org.

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