Lu Wang, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC

2250 Alcazar St.
CSA 207F – HSC 9062
Los Angeles, CA 90089
Phone: (213) 821-9599
Fax: (323) 442-2981
lwang419@usc.edu
Lab website:
Wang Lab

 

 

Education
Experience
Awards
Research
Publications

Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China
B.S., 2011
Biology

Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
Ph.D., 2017
Molecular and Cell Biology

  • 2024 – present – Assistant Professor – Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
  • 2017 – 2024 – Post-doctoral Fellow – University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA
  • 2013 – 2015 – Teaching Assistant – Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
  • 2022-2027 – K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award (NINDS)
  • 2022-2024 – CIRM Training Award (Postdoctoral), University of California, San Diego
  • 2020-2022 – NARSAD Young Investigator, Brain & Behavior Research Foundation
  • 2020 – NARSAD Young Investigator Award
  • 2020 – “Reviewers Choice Poster” at American Society of Human Genetics

  1. Yao H, Hu D, Wang J, Wu W, Zhao HH, Wang L, Gleeson J, Haddad GG. (2023) Buprenorphine and methadone differentially alter early brain development in human cortical organoids. Neuropharmacology. 2023 Nov 15;239:109683. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropharm.2023.109683. Epub 2023 Aug 3. PMID: 37543137.

  2. Wang L, Owusu-Hammond C, Sievert D, Gleeson JG. (2023) Stem Cell-Based Organoid Models of Neurodevelopmental Disorders. Biol Psychiatry. 2023 Apr 1;93(7):622-631. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2023.01.012. Epub 2023 Jan 24. PMID: 36759260; PMCID: PMC10022535.

  3. Wang L, Heffner C, Vong KI, Barrows C, Ha Y-J, Lee S, Lara-Gonzalez P, Jhamb I, Van Der Meer D, Loughnan R, Parker N, Sievert D, Mittal S, Issa MY, Andreassen OA, Dale A, Dobyns WB, Zaki MS, Murray SA, Gleeson JG. (2023) TMEM161B modulates radial glial scaffolding in neocortical development. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 120, e2209983120 (2023).

  4. Wang L, Sievert D, Clark AE, Lee S, Federman H, Gastfriend BD, Shusta EV, Palecek SP, Carlin AF, Gleeson JG. (2021) A human three-dimensional neural-perivascular ‘assembloid’ promotes astrocytic development and enables modeling of SARS-CoV-2 neuropathology. Nat Med 27, 1600–1606 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01443-1.

  5. Chai G, Szenker-Ravi E, Chung C, Li Z, Wang L, Khatoo M, Marshall T, Jiang N, Yang X, McEvoy-Venneri J, Stanley V, Anzenberg P, Lang N, Wazny V, Yu J, Virshup DM, Nygaard R, Mancia F, Merdzanic R, Toralles MBP, Pitanga PML, Puri RD, Hernan R, Chung WK, Bertoli-Avella AM, Al-Sannaa N, Zaki MS, Willert K, Reversade B, Gleeson JG. (2021) A Human Pleiotropic Multiorgan Condition Caused by Deficient Wnt Secretion. N Engl J Med. 2021 Sep 30;385(14):1292-1301. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2033911. PMID: 34587386; PMCID: PMC9017221.

  6. Wang L, Li Z, Sievert D, Smith EC D, Mendes MI, Chen DY, Stanley V, Ghosh S, Wang Y, Kara M, Aslanger AD, Rosti RO, Houlden H, Salomons GS, Gleeson JG. (2020) Loss of NARS1 impairs progenitor proliferation in cortical brain organoids and leads to microcephaly. Nat Commun 11, 4038 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17454-4.

  7. Wenderski W, Wang L, Krokhotin A, Walsh JJ, Li H, Shoji H, Ghosh S, George RD, Miller EL, Elias L, Gillespie MA, Son EY, Staahl BT, Baek ST, Stanley V, Moncada C, Shipony Z, Linker SB, Marchetto MCN, Gage FH, Chen D, Sultan T, Zaki MS, Ranish JA, Miyakawa T, Luo L, Malenka RC, Crabtree GR, Gleeson JG. (2020) Loss of the neural-specific BAF subunit ACTL6B relieves repression of early response genes and causes recessive autism. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 May 5;117(18):10055-10066. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1908238117. Epub 2020 Apr 20. PMID: 32312822; PMCID: PMC7211998.

  8. Ghosh SG, Wang L, Breuss MW, Green JD, Stanley V, Yang X, Ross D, Traynor BJ, Alhashem AM, Azam M, Selim L, Bastaki L, Elbastawisy HI, Temtamy S, Zaki M, Gleeson JG. (2020) Recurrent homozygous damaging mutation in TMX2, encoding a protein disulfide isomerase, in four families with microlissencephaly. J Med Genet. 2020 Apr;57(4):274-282. doi: 10.1136/jmedgenet-2019-106409. Epub 2019 Oct 5. PMID: 31586943; PMCID: PMC7405652.

  9. Manole A, Efthymiou S, O’Connor E, Mendes MI, Jennings M, Maroofian R, Davagnanam I, Mankad K, Lopez MR, Salpietro V, Harripaul R, Badalato L, Walia J, Francklyn CS, Athanasiou-Fragkouli A, Sullivan R, Desai S, Baranano K, Zafar F, Rana N, Ilyas M, Horga A, Kara M, Mattioli F, Goldenberg A, Griffin H, Piton A, Henderson LB, Kara B, Aslanger AD, Raaphorst J, Pfundt R, Portier R, Shinawi M, Kirby A, Christensen KM, Wang L, Rosti RO, Paracha SA, Sarwar MT, Jenkins D; SYNAPS Study Group; Ahmed J, Santoni FA, Ranza E, Iwaszkiewicz J, Cytrynbaum C, Weksberg R, Wentzensen IM, Guillen Sacoto MJ, Si Y, Telegrafi A, Andrews MV, Baldridge D, Gabriel H, Mohr J, Oehl-Jaschkowitz B, Debard S, Senger B, Fischer F, van Ravenwaaij C, Fock AJM, Stevens SJC, Bähler J, Nasar A, Mantovani JF, Manzur A, Sarkozy A, Smith DEC, Salomons GS, Ahmed ZM, Riazuddin S, Riazuddin S, Usmani MA, Seibt A, Ansar M, Antonarakis SE, Vincent JB, Ayub M, Grimmel M, Jelsig AM, Hjortshøj TD, Karstensen HG, Hummel M, Haack TB, Jamshidi Y, Distelmaier F, Horvath R, Gleeson JG, Becker H, Mandel JL, Koolen DA, Houlden H. (2020) De Novo and Bi-allelic Pathogenic Variants in NARS1 Cause Neurodevelopmental Delay Due to Toxic Gain-of-Function and Partial Loss-of-Function Effects. Am J Hum Genet. 2020 Aug 6;107(2):311-324. doi: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2020.06.016. Epub 2020 Jul 31. PMID: 32738225; PMCID: PMC7413890.

  10. Xu X, Wang L, Liu B, Xie W, Chen YG. (2018) Activin/Smad2 and Wnt/β-catenin up-regulate HAS2 and ALDH3A2 to facilitate mesendoderm differentiation of human embryonic stem cells. J Biol Chem. 2018 Nov 30;293(48):18444-18453. doi: 10.1074/jbc.RA118.003688. Epub 2018 Oct 3. PMID: 30282636; PMCID: PMC6290156.

  11. Wang L, Xu X, Cao Y, Li Z, Cheng H, Zhu G, Duan F, Na J, Han JJ, Chen YG. (2017) Activin/Smad2-induced Histone H3 Lys-27 Trimethylation (H3K27me3) Reduction Is Crucial to Initiate Mesendoderm Differentiation of Human Embryonic Stem Cells. J Biol Chem. 2017 Jan 27;292(4):1339-1350. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M116.766949. Epub 2016 Dec 13. PMID: 27965357; PMCID: PMC5270477.

  12. Wang L, Chen YG. (2016) Signaling Control of Differentiation of Embryonic Stem Cells toward Mesendoderm. J Mol Biol. 2016 Apr 10;428(7):1409-22. doi: 10.1016/j.jmb.2015.06.013. Epub 2015 Jun 25. PMID: 26119455.

  13. Zhang J, Fei T, Li Z, Zhu G, Wang L, Chen YG. (2013) BMP induces cochlin expression to facilitate self-renewal and suppress neural differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells. J Biol Chem. 2013 Mar 22;288(12):8053-8060. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M112.433995. Epub 2013 Jan 23. PMID: 23344953; PMCID: PMC3605624.

  14. Li Z, Fei T, Zhang J, Zhu G, Wang L, Lu D, Chi X, Teng Y, Hou N, Yang X, Zhang H, Han JD, Chen YG. (2012) BMP4 Signaling Acts via dual-specificity phosphatase 9 to control ERK activity in mouse embryonic stem cells. Cell Stem Cell. 2012 Feb 3;10(2):171-82. doi: 10.1016/j.stem.2011.12.016. PMID: 22305567.