Departmental Affiliations
Fengyi Wan, PhD, dissects the interactions between host cells, the microbiota, and pathogens to understand health and diseases in the colon.
Contact Info
Research Interests
signal transduction; pathogen-host-microbiota interactions; RNA-binding proteins; colitis; colon tumorigenesis; autoimmune diseases.
Experiences & Accomplishments
My laboratory is interested in investigating the host-pathogen-commensal interactions in bacterially induced colonic infection, inflammation, and tumorigenesis, and elucidating the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms, using a combination of genetic, immunological, molecular, and cellular approaches. In particular, we are interested to examine how bacterial virulence proteins (effectors) interfere with host inflammatory and immune signaling in host cells, to elucidate the key immune signaling that orchestrates innate and adaptive immune responses to colonic bacterial infection, and to explore the critical pathogen-host-microbiota interactions that can be mechanistically linked to microbially induced lethal colitis and colon cancer etiology in mice and in humans.
Postdoc positions are available. Please contact Fengyi Wan (fwan1@jhu.edu) for the details.
Honors & Awards
Yong-Ling Liu Award, Chinese Academy of Sciences (2002); Director Award, Chinese Academy of Sciences (2003); Howard Temin Pathway to Independence Award in Cancer Research, NCI (2008); AAI-Invitrogen Trainee Achievement Award, American Association of Immunologists (2009); American Cancer Society Research Scholar, ACS (2013); Johns Hopkins Catalyst Award (2017); Idea Development Award, Department of Defense (2019).
Select Publications
Xu D, Zhou S, Liu Y, Scott AL, Yang J, Wan F (2024) Complement in breast milk modifies the offspring gut microbiota to promote infant health. Cell 187(3): 750-763.e20
Liu Y, Fu K, Wier EM, Lei Y, Hodgson A, Xu D, Xia X, Zheng D, Ding H, Sears CL, Yang J, Wan F (2022) Bacterial genotoxin accelerates transient infection-driven murine colon tumorigenesis. Cancer Discov. 12(1): 236-249
Xia X, Liu Y, Hodgson A, Xu D, Guo W, Yu H, She W, Zhou C, Lan L, Fu K, Vallance BA, Wan F (2019) EspF is crucial for Citrobacter rodentium-induced tight junction disruption and lethality in immunocompromised animals. PLoS Pathog. 15(6): e1007898
Sun X, Fu K, Hodgson A, Wier EM, Wen MG, Kamenyeva O, Xia X, Koo LY, Wan F (2016) Sam68 is required for DNA damage responses via regulating poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation. PLoS Biol. 14(9): e1002543
Wan F, Anderson DE, Barnitz RA, Snow A, Bidere N, Zheng L, Hegde V, Lam LT, Staudt LM, Levens D, Deutsch WA, Lenardo MJ (2007) Ribosomal Protein S3: A KH Domain Subunit in NF-B Complexes that Mediates Selective Gene Regulation. Cell 131(5): 927-939