Research interests

The major research interests of my laboratory are stem cell and cancer biology. These include: 1) Regulation of proliferation, differentiation, and lineage commitment of normal hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) under homeostatic conditions and under conditions of stress; 2) Novel strategies to ameliorate the side effects of cancer therapy on hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells in vivo. 3) Signaling network for lineage-specific differentiation of embryonic stem (ES) cells and iPS cells; 4) Novel technologies for generation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells); 5) Role of SNAIL families in regulation of mammary gland development, self-renewal of mammary gland stem cells and breast cancer stem cells, and cancer metastasis.

 

 

Publications

• 1) Liu T.X., Becker M.W., Wu W.S., Deng M., Jelinek J., Hsu K., Bloomfield C.D., Stone R.M., DeAngelo D.J., Issa J.P., Erba H.P., Clarke M.F., Look A.T., del(5q) and epigenetic suppression of ?-catenin (CTNNA1) expression in myeloid leukemia. Nature Medicine 1:78-83, 2006.
• Research Highlights:"Taming Puma" Nature Reviews Cancer, Vol. 6, 1, 2006.
• News and Reports: "Slug ging It Out Until the End" Hematologist, Vol. 3, 7, 2006.
• News and Commentary: "Clues from worms: a Slug at Puma promotes the survival of blood progenitors" Cell Death and Differentiation 1–3, 2006.
• 2) Wu W.S., Heinrichs S., Xu D., Garrison S.P., Zambetti G.P., Adams J.M., Look A.T. Slug Antagonizes p53-Mediated Apoptosis of Hematopoietic Progenitors by Repressing Puma. Cell 123:641-653, 2005.
• The Cover: "Slug Represses Puma to Antagonize Apoptosis" Cell, Nov.18, 2005.
• Previews: "Slugging It out: Fine Tuning the p53-PUMA Death Connection" Cell, 123, 545-548, 2005.
• Research Highlights: "Slug beats Puma" Nature, Vol. 438, 398-399, 2005.
• 3) Inukai T., Inaba T., Dang J., Kuribara R., Ozawa K., Miyajima A., Wu W.S., Look A.T., Arinobu Y., Iwasaki H., Akashi K., Kagami K., Goi K., Sugita K., Nakazawa S. TEF, an antiapoptotic bZIP transcription factor related to the oncogenic E2A-HLF chimera, inhibits cell growth by down-regulating expression of the common beta chain of cytokine receptors. Blood 105:4437-4444, 2005.
• 4) Wu W.S., Xu Z.X., Hittelman W.N., Salomoni P., Pandolfi P.P., Chang K.S. Promyelocytic Leukemia Protein Sensitizes Tumor Necrosis Factor a-Induced Apoptosis by Inhibiting the NF-kB Survival Pathway. J. Biol. Chem. 278:12294-12304, 2003.
• 5) McClain K.L., Laud P., Wu W.S., Pollack M.S. Langerhans cell histiocytosis patients have HLA Cw7 and DR4 types associated with specific clinical presentations and no increased frequency in polymorphisms of the tumor necrosis factor alpha promoter. Medical Pediatric Oncology 41:502-507, 2003.
• 6) Wu W.S., Xu Z.X., Ran R.G., Meng F., Chang K.S. Promyelocytic Leukemia Protein PML Inhibits Nur77-mediated Transactivation Through Specific Function Interaction. Oncogene 21:3925-3933, 2002.
• 7) Wu W.S., Xu Z.X., Chang K.S. The Promyelocytic Leukemia Protein Represses A20 mediated Transcription. J. Biol. Chem. 27:31734-31739, 2002.
• 8) Inoue A., Seidel M.G., Wu W.S., Kamizono S., Ferrando A.A., Bronson R.T., Iwasaki H., Akashi K., Morimoto A., Hitzler J.K., Pestina T.I., Jackson C.W., Tanaka R., Chong M.J., McKinnon P.J., Inukai T., Grosveld G.C., Look T.A. S lug, a highly Conserved Zinc Finger Transcriptional Repressor, Protects Hematopoietic Progenitor Cells from Radiation-induced Apoptosis in vivo. Cancer Cell 2:279-288, 2002.
• Comment on: “SLUGging away at cell death” Cancer Cell, Vol. 2, 249-251, 2002
• 9) Wu W.S., Vallian S., Seto E., Yang W.M., Edmondson D., Roth S., Chang K.S. The Growth Suppressor PML Represses Transcription by Functionally and Physically Interacting with Histone Deacetyases. Molecular and Cellular Biology 21:2259-2268, 2001.
• 10) Wu W.S., McClain K.L. DNA Polymorphisms and Mutations of the Tumor Necrosis Factor-a Promoter in Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis (LCH). J. Interferon and Cytokine Research 17:631-635, 1997.
• 11) Towle DW, Rushton ME, Heidysch D, Magnani JJ, Rose MJ, Amstutz A,Jordon MK, Shearer DW, Wu WS. Sodium/Proton Antiporter in the Euryhaline Crab Carcinus Maenas: Molecular Cloning, Expression and Tissure Distribution. J. Exp. Biol. 200:1003-1014 1997.