Dr Yang Wu

Biography

I graduated from medical university and trained for Msc, Ph.D. in medical research both in China and Western countries. Working experience in medical institutes in China, Canada and UK

 

Research interests

Research experience in stress responses and HSPs (1984-1993).  Experience in filarial nematodes (1993-2000) with interests in filarial nematode biology, stage-specific antigen expression, vaccination, and immunology, From 2000 to 2016, 

I worked under the supervision of Professor Alister Craig obtained decent knowledge and experience in malarial cytoadherence,  signal transduction and functional proteomics analysis using mass spectrum.   from 2017 to 2019 I have had a chance to work in Francis Crick Institute, London (A fantastic state-of-the-art biomedical and translational research centre) under Malarial Drug Target Discovery Program led by professor Tony Holder, I gained experience of working on drugs, for the discovery and drug target validation.

In  LSTM,  I work in AWOL/Filariasis Lab. under the leadership of Professor Mark Taylor. We are working on the next phase of research of Wolbachia/nematode symbiosis and progress into translational aspects to exploit Wolbachia as a drug target. The project includes drug target identification, mode-of-action of new fast-acting anti-wolbachial drugs and polyomic approaches to further understand the nature of the mutualistic association (genomic/ transcriptomic/ metabolomic and proteomic analysis of key stages of  Brugia Malayi and other filarial nematodes. 

Inrecent 5 years, I am working on  viruses from parasites such as Onchocerca volvulus, Onchocerca ochengi  Trichuris trichiura  and Trichuris muris  etc, which might have many potential impacts on parasite biology and disease pathogenesis.

Selected research publications

Autophagy is essential for anti-Wolbachia drug efficacy in Brugia malayi and insect cells – Journal: Frontiers in Microbiology – Published: 16th March 2026

Diverse RNA viruses of parasitic nematodes can elicit antibody responses in vertebrate hosts – Journal: Nature Microbiology – Published: 4th September 2024

Wolbachia depletion blocks transmission of lymphatic filariasis by preventing chitinase-dependent parasite exsheathment – Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America – Published: 12th April 2022

Ubiquitin activation is essential for schizont maturation in Plasmodium falciparum blood-stage development – Journal: PLoS Pathogens – Published: 1st June 2020

Testing the effect of PAR1 inhibitors on Plasmodium falciparum-induced loss of endothelial cell barrier function – Journal: Wellcome Open Research – Published: 19th February 2020

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