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, Fusobacterium nucleatum, Bacteroides fragilis, 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 Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health at Chinese Academy of Sciences as a principal investigator. I have published more than 60 papers in Nature Chemical Biology, Genome Research, Cell Research, Cell Reports, Advanced Science, Genome Biology, PLoS Genetics, etc. I am the first or corresponding author in 30 of these publications.
1. Zihe Xu#, Xiaoqi Zheng#, Jiajun Fan#, Yuting Jiao, Sihao Huang, Yingyuan Xie, Shunlan Xu, Yi Lu, Anrui Liu, Runzhou Liu, Ying Yang, Guan-Zheng Luo, Tao Pan, Wang X*. Microbiome-induced reprogramming in post-transcriptional landscape using Nanopore direct RNA sequencing. Cell Reports, 2024,43(10):114798.
2. 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, 11(28):e2307981.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
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 Dec 5;2(12):pgad390.
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.