Xingen Lei

Additional Affiliations

• Editor-in-Chief, The Journal of Nutrition, American Society for Nutrition
• Fellow, National Academy of Inventors
• President and Parent Committee Chair, International Trace Elements and Mineral Association (TEMA) 

Areas of Expertise

• Alternative feed and food proteins
• Animal, mineral, human health, functional genomics
• Hydrolytic enzymes for nutrition and environment
• Global food, energy, and water nexus
• Mineral, selenium, copper, iron, phytase, protease, biotechnology, environment, diabetes, obesity, biofortification, protein engineering, molecular nutrition

Graduate Fields

• Animal Science
• Food Science & Technology
• Genomics
• Nutrition

Xingen Lei is internationally known for his contribution to improving the nexus of sustainable animal agriculture, food security, nutrition and health, and environmental protection. He joined the Cornell faculty as an assistant professor in 1995, and was promoted to associate professor in 2000, full professor in 2006, and associate dean in 2023. 

Lei’s most creative and impactful research is the development of a new generation of bacterial phytases that are used in ~50 countries by the feed industry. His breakthroughs have received >70 domestic and international patents, greatly facilitated the wide application of phytases to replace inorganic phosphorus supplementation in diets for swine, poultry and fish, and led to a global reduction of phosphorus excretion from food animals by 30-50%.

He has devoted great passion and effort to develop novel technologies for converting voluminous poultry feathers and defatted microalgal biomass from biofuel production into high-value, alternative feed proteins to ensure global feed and food protein supply and to create bioactive nutrients (DHA and vitamin D3)-enriched chicken and eggs for improving human health. He has pioneered the application of gene-knockout and -omics to study nutritional genomics of selenium in food and laboratory animals and discovered dual roles and mechanisms of selenium in oxidative stress and diabetes. He has been an international leader in transforming agriculture (bio-fortification of staples) to fight against global “hidden hunger” and has also used pigs as a human model to decrease iron and zinc deficiencies.

Lei has acquired a substantial amount of grant support from federal and private sponsors for his research and has authored 264 publications (h-index, 74; citations >19,000). He is placed #5 as the highly ranked scholar-lifetime of selenium-dependent glutathione peroxidase research (in the top 0.05% of all scholars in the world, ScholarGPS [at] ScholarGPS.com (ScholarGPS[at]ScholarGPS[dot]com)).

He has advised 145 graduate students, postdocs and visiting fellows, and supervised 80 undergraduate researchers. He has taught Swine Nutrition and Management, Mineral Nutrition, Animals in Biomedical Research, The Global Food, Energy, and Water Nexus – Engaging the US, China, and India for a Sustainable Future, and Sustainable Food and Companion Animal Systems and Perspective. 

Lei has served on panels for the NIH and USDA, the NRC Committee on Mineral Toxicity, the CAST Task Force on Biotechnology and Manure Nutrients and 10 Editorial Boards. Currently, he is the editor-in-chief of Journal of Nutrition, the president of the International Society of Trace Elements and Mineral Association (TEMA, since 2017), and a co-leader of a large USDA/NIFA/SAS-funded project ($10 million) teamed with multiple institutes to empower the US broiler industry for sustainability and profit. 

Lei has received many prestigious awards, honors, and recognitions from his professional societies (ASAS and ASN). In 2021, he was elected as a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors for his breakthrough discoveries of phytase and impactful contribution to sustainable livestock and poultry production, global food and nutrition security, and environmental protection.

Research Mission

Our research mission covers both basic and translational aspects of nutritional genomics. The scope spans from the fundamental mechanisms of antioxidant nutrients and enzymes in metabolism and pathogenesis of chronic diseases, to the development of novel hydrolytic enzymes and alternative feed/food protein sources. We are actively involved in the biofortifications of staple crops and animal foods with essential micronutrients iron, zinc, and pro-vitamin A and bioactive nutrients. Our experimental models include food-producing species pigs and chickens, laboratory species rats and gene-knockout mice, primary and cultured cells, yeast, fungi and bacteria, while our approaches consist of nutritional, molecular, biochemical, biophysical and physiological methods, along with cutting-edge genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics. Our findings aim at directly improving human health, food security and environmental sustainability worldwide.

Research Focus

• Role and mechanism of selenium, selenoproteins, and other antioxidant enzymes in diabetes, obesity, and fatty liver

  Applying gene-knockout and overexpressing mouse models, our group produced the first direct evidence for an in vivo antioxidant role of selenium-dependent glutathione peroxidase-1 (GPX1), and a contrasting role of GPX1 and Cu,Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1) in coping with reactive oxygen species vs. reactive nitrogen species. We found that overproduction of GPX1 in mice induced type 2 diabetes-like phenotypes. Currently, we are elucidating the molecular mechanism and signal transduction for the role of selenium and selenoproteins in regulating energy, fat, and protein metabolism, ER stress, and development of diabetes, obesity, and fatty liver. We are also illustrating systematic regulations of the selenoprotein genome by dietary selenium in pigs and chicks, and unveiling molecular mechanisms for pathogeneses of classical selenium/vitamin E deficiency diseases such as exudative diathesis and pancreatic atrophy in chicks.

• Protein engineering of novel hydrolytic enzymes for feed and food applications

  Our laboratory overexpress and engineer phytases, proteases, and other hydrolytic enzymes for improving mineral (P, Ca, Fe, and Zn) and protein nutrition and to protect environmental pollution of animal waste. Our pioneering research on bacterial phytase has led to the discovery, development, and worldwide commercialization of the second generation of phytases. We are currently applying genomics, proteomics, and bioinformatics to reveal feather-degrading mechanisms of microbes and developing novel proteases for converting over 100 million tons of poultry feathers into feed protein supplements.

• Development of alternative feed and food proteins (feather, microalgae, hempseed, insect)

  We are trying to address global food and nutrition security by exploring alternative feed protein sources to replace soybean meal in diets for food animals. Funded by the USDA, DOE, and other sponsors, we have been determining nutritional, environmental, and economic values of defatted microalgal biomass, hempseed, and insect proteins as a new sources of feed protein for broiler chicks, layer hens, pigs, and pets. We are also exploring the unique potential of these ingredients to produce health value-added animal products. 

• Biofortification of staples and animal foods with micro and bioactive nutrients 

  To reduce and prevent prevalence of micronutrient (iron, zinc, and vitamin A) deficiencies in 30-40% of the world population, we have been actively participating in the international efforts to apply new agriculture technologies for biofortifying staples with those nutrients (http://www.HarvestPlus.org). We have used pigs as a model to study determinants of iron bioavailability in staple crops and introduced the HarvestPlus program to China where a national team of over 100 Chinese scientists have worked to deliver this program. Because the high incidences of vitamin D inadequacy in the northeast of US in the winter and the low intakes of omega 3 fatty acids by the public, we are enriching chicken and eggs with the bioactive form of vitamin D3 and DHA and testing the efficacy of the enriched foods in humans in collaboration with human nutritionists. 

Outreach and Extension Focus

• Associate Editor (2008-2020), Journal of Nutrition
• Editorial Committee (2015-2017), Annual Review of Animal Biosciences
• Associate Director (2004-present), HarvestPlus-China Program
• International Parent Committee (2005-present) and President (2017-now), Trace Elements in Man and Animals
• President (2012-2014), North America Chinese Society for Nutrition
• Faculty Member (1997-present), Cornell Institute for Food Systems (CIFS)
• Faculty Member (2008-present), Cornell University Center for Vertebrate Genomics
• ACSF Faculty Fellows (2011-present), David R. Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future

Teaching Focus

Since 2017, I have led a course entitled, Global Food, Energy, and Water Nexus – Engage the US, China, and India for Sustainable Future. This course is cross-listed as ANSC, FDSC, AEM, CHEME, and CEE 4880/6880/6780/5820, and is in collaboration with six schools in China, India and Puerto Rico.

With several colleagues, I have also developed another new course ANSC 2000: Sustainable Food & Companion Animal Systems and Perspectives. In addition, I teach Animal Science 3980/5980: Animals in Biomedical Research. This course introduces features and applications of various animal models for biomedical research on human health and diseases. 

Also, every semester, my laboratory hosts 5-8 undergraduate students majoring in animal science, biology, nutrition and other fields to conduct independent and honors thesis research. 

Presentations and Activities

• Invited talk: Role & mechanism of supplemental methionine in metabolic stress of broilers raised at high ambient temperature or stocking density at Baker symposium, Midwest ASAS meeting, Madison, WI. March 11, 2024. 
• Invited talk: Selenium: past, present, and future at the China Nutrition Society-Selenium Section National Meeting, Enshi, China. April 8, 2024.
• Invited talk: Selenium biology and anti-aging role at 2024 International Nutrition and Anti-Aging Research Summit Forum, Shenyang, China. May 18, 2024.
• Invited talk: Crossing-talk between micronutrients and macronutrients metabolism: implication in health and disease, at Nonruminant/Swine Nutrition Symposium, ASAS National Meeting, Calgary, Canada. July 21, 2024. 
• Invited talk: Selenium across species and time at the 10th Asia Selenium Meeting, NEAU, Harbin, China. August 19, 2024.
• Invited talk: Novel role and mechanism of selenoproteins GPX1 and SELENOV in insulin secretion and body energy expenditure at the 17th Chinese Biological Inorganic Chemistry National Meeting, Wuhan, China. August 23, 2024.
• Invited keynote lecture: Non-antioxidant roles of antioxidant enzymes at the 5th International Conference of Food and Health, Kagoshima University, Japan. September 25, 2024.
• Invited presentation: Making biotechnology more inclusive for feeding everyone a health diet, at the opening session of FAO Science and Innovation Forum (SIF2024), Rome, Italy. October 16, 2024.
• Invited talk: A Protein protein interaction between SOD1 and YWHAZ & YWHAE at SFRR-Asia, Beijing, China. October 21, 2024.
• Invited plenary lecture: Non-antioxidant roles of metal-containing enzymes at TEMA18, Bengaluru, India. November 12, 2024.