Contact Information
Assistant Professor of Biochemistry
Email: wangelu@usc.edu
Office Phone: 323-442-1618
Lab Phone: 323-442-2497
Office Location: 1501 San Pablo St, ZNI 523
Lab Location: 1501 San Pablo St, ZNI 521
Fax: 323-442-4040
Web site: http://www.usc.edu/programs/pibbs/
site/faculty/lu_w.htm
Education
Nankai University, Tianjin, P.R. China B.S. 1986-1990 Molecular Biology Beijing University, Beijing, P.R. China M.S. 1990-1993 Molecular Biology Harvard University, Cambridge, MA Ph.D. 1993-1998 Virology
Recent Publications
Lu, W., and Mayer, B. J. (1999). Mechanism of activation of Pak1 kinase by membrane localization. Oncogene 18, 797-806
Lei, M., Lu, W., Meng, W., Parrini, M. C., Eck, M. J., Mayer, B. J., and Harrison, S. C. (2000). Structure of PAK1 in an autoinhibited conformation reveals a multistage activation switch. Cell 102, 387-397
Lu, W., Yamamoto, V., Ortega, B. and Baltimore, D. (2004). Mammalian Ryk is a Wnt coreceptor required for stimulation of neurite outgrowth. Cell. 119, 97-108
Research Description
Human nervous system consists of billions of neurons and their supporting cells. These cells originally come from neural stem cells. During brain development, neural stem cells respond to the surrounding environment by either proliferation or differentiation. The molecular mechanisms underlying the development of neural stem cells and neurons are far from clear. Our laboratory studies the molecular mechanisms of neural stem cell proliferation and differentiation. Particularly, we are interested in Wnt signaling in neural stem cells and neurons.
We focus our efforts on an atypical receptor tyrosine kinase named Ryk. Ryk in Drosophila is required for learning, memory and axon guidance. We and others have identified Ryk as a new receptor for Wnt, a secreted glycoprotein that play important roles in cell proliferation and differentiation. Using Ryk siRNA transgenic mice, we have found that Ryk was required for axon guidance and neurite outgrowth and neural stem cell proliferation and differentiation. Ryk also regulates gene expression from nuclear factor Tcf. Many questions remain on Ryk. For example, what is the signal transduction pathway of Ryk? How does it interact with the canonical beta-catenin pathway? How does this pathway regulate the development of neural stem cells and neurons? These questions are the primary focus of our laboratory.
Another line of research in the lab is to study human embryonic stem cell proliferation and differentiation. Human ES cells are pluripotent and can differentiate into all cell types in our body. They have great potential for cell replacement therapy for degenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, Huntington disease, et cetera. We use genomic and proteomic approaches to find the machinery that hES cells use to control proliferative self-renewal and differentiation. We are also interested in studying human neurological diseases using hES cells as a model. In a long run, we hope to manipulate cell signaling events to induce hES cell proliferation, direct hES cell differentiation and protect neurons from pathological death.
Lab Staff
- Jungmook Lyu, Postdoctoral Fellow
- Hyoung-Tai Kim, Postdoctoral Fellow
- Peilin Zhang, Research Associate
- Zong Wei, Graduate student
- Joyce Zhong, Graduate student
- Yang Yang, Visiting Graduate Student
- Vicky Yamamoto, Graduate student
Awarded Grants
Funding source: Wright Foundation Funding period: 7/1/2006-6/30/2008
Funding source: Baxter Foundation Funding period: 7/1/2007-6/30/2008
Funding source: CIRM SEED grant, California Institute of Regenrative Medicine Funding period: 7/1/2007-06/30/2009
Funding source: John Douglas French Alzheimer's foundation distinguished scholar award Funding period: 5/1/2007-04/30/2011
PI on all grants: Wange Lu