2024.02-Present Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health at Chinese Academy of Sciences, PI

2019.02-2024.02 School of Life Sciences at South China Normal University, Professor

2017.08-2019.02 School of Life Sciences at The University of Chicago, Instructor

2012.07-2017.07 School of Life Sciences at The University of Chicago, Postdoctoral scholar

2007.09-2012.07 Zhongshan School of Medicine of Sun Yat-sen University, PhD

2002.09-2007.07 School of Medicine at Anhui University of Science and Technology, Bachelor

1. Mechanisms of the interaction between human gut microbiome and host

Gut microbiota is very important for human and animal health, which has been the topic in recent years. The gut microbiota is of great significance for maintaining host metabolism and immune function, but the interaction mechanism between gut microbiota and the host needs to be further studied. In this direction, we focus on the regulation of host RNA epigenetics and gene expression mechanisms by gut microbiota and their metabolites.

 2. Mechanisms of the interaction between human pathogens and host

Pathogenic microorganisms (viruses, bacteria, parasites, etc.) pose a serious threat to human health and public health. The infection and mechanism of many pathogens are still unclear. This direction mainly focuses important scientific questions in the field of life sciences, such as the mechanism of drug resistance, host immune responses, and the interaction mechanism with host proteins or nucleic acids in the process of infection by important pathogens.

3. Vaccine development and drug development for Infectious diseases

Vaccines and drugs are important strategies to prevent and treat infectious diseases, but there are no vaccines and targeted drugs for large number of pathogens that are threatening public health. This direction mainly focuses on oncogenic pathogens (Helicobacter pylori, HBV, EBV, etc.) as the research object. We aim to identify key factors of pathogen infection, replication and virulence, and to develop RNA vaccines and RNA drugs.

My recent research interests focus on the mechanisms underlying host-microbe interactions in physiological and pathological conditions. I received my PhD in 2012 at Sun Yat-sen University studying pathogen biology, then I finished my postdoctoral training in Prof. Tao Pan’s lab at the University of Chicago from 2012 to 2017, I was promoted to be Independent Instructor at the University of Chicago in 2017 after I received the NIH K award. I came back to China and take a full professor position at South China Normal University in 2019. In 2024, I moved to Chinese Academy of Sciences Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health as a principal investigator. I have published more than 60 papers in Nature Chemical Biology, Cell Research, Genome Research, Advanced Science, Genome Biology, PLoS Genetics, etc. I am the first or corresponding author in 30 of these publications.

1. Yang M^#, Zheng X^#, Fan J^#, Cheng W^#, Yan TM, Lai Y, Zhang N, Lu Y, Qi J, Huo Z, Xu Z, Huang J, Jiao Y, Liu B, Pang R, Zhong X, Huang S, Luo GZ, Lee G, Jobin C, Eren AM, Chang EB, Wei H*, Pan T*, Wang X*. Antibiotic-induced gut microbiota dysbiosis modulates host transcriptome and m⁶A epitranscriptome via bile acid metabolism. Advanced Science. 2024, 2307981.

2. Huang J^#, Chen W^#, Zhou F, Pang Z, Wang L, Pan T, Wang X*. Tissue-specific reprogramming of host tRNA transcriptome by the microbiome. Genome Research. 2021, 31(6):947-957.

3. Wang X^#, Li Y^#, Chen W, Shi H, Eren AM, Morozov A, He C, Luo GZ*, Pan T*. Transcriptome-wide reprogramming of N⁶-methyladenosine modification by the mouse microbiome. Cell Research. 2019, 29(2):167-170.

4. Ma H^#, Wang X^#, Cai J^#, Dai Q, Natchiar SK, Lv R, Chen K, Lu Z, Chen H, Shi YG, Lan F, Fan J, Klaholz BP, Pan T*, Shi Y*, He C*. N6-methyladenosine methyltransferase ZCCHC4 mediates ribosomal RNA methylation. Nature Chemical Biology. 2019, 15(1):88-94. 

5. Wang X, Chen W, Huang Y, Sun J, Men J, Liu H, Luo F, Guo L, Lv X, Deng C, Zhou C, Fan Y, Li X, Huang L, Hu Y, Liang C, Hu X, Xu J, Yu X*. The draft genome of the carcinogenic human liver fluke Clonorchis sinensis. Genome Biology. 2011, 12(10):R107.

6. Wang X*, Pan T*. Methionine mistranslation bypasses the restraint of the genetic code to generate mutant proteins with distinct activities. PLOS Genetics. 2015, 11(12):e1005745. 

6. Wang X*, Matuszek Z, Huang Y, Parisien M, Dai Q, Clark W, Schwartz MH, Pan T*. Queuosine modification protects cognate tRNAs against ribonuclease cleavage. RNA. 2018, (10):1305-1313. 

7. Wang L^#, Wu J^#, Liu R^#, Chen W, Pang Z, Zhou F, Xia L, Huang J, Pan T, Su X*, Wang X*. Epitranscriptome profiling of spleen mRNA m⁶A methylation reveals pathways of host responses to malaria parasite infection. Frontiers In Immunology. 2022 Sep 20;13:998756. 

8. Liu X^#, Yang M^#, Liu R, Zhou F, Zhu H*, Wang X*. The impact of Parkinson's disease-associated gut microbiota on the transcriptome in Drosophila. Microbiology Spectrum. 2023 Sep 27;e0017623.

9. Huang J^#, Zhou F^#, Zhou H, Zheng X, Huo Z, Yang M, Xu Z, Liu R, Wang L, Wang X*. Systematic assessment of transcriptomic and metabolic reprogramming by blue light exposure coupled with aging. PNAS Nexus. 2023, 2(12), 1-15.

10. Zhou F^#, Liu B^#, Liu X, Li Y, Wang L, Huang J, Luo G*, Wang X*. The impact of microbiome and microbiota-derived sodium butyrate on Drosophila transcriptome and metabolome revealed by multi-omics analysis. Metabolites. 2021 May 6;11(5):298.