Wenlan Wang, M.D., Ph.D.

Associate Research Scientist
Research Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics
Thomas Jefferson University

Contact

Room 204, A/R Building
Research Department
A.I. duPont Hospital for Children
1600 Rockland Road
Wilmington, DE 19803

Phone: (302) 651-6777
Fax: (302) 651-6795
E-mail: wwang@nemours.org

Education

M.S., M.D.: Shanghai Medical University, China
M.S.: Polytechnic University of New York
Ph.D.: University of Nebraska at Lincoln

Research Interests

My research interests cover cell proliferation and apoptosis, chromosome structure, gene regulation, and signal transduction pathways. Currently, my lab is studying a pediatric disease called spinal muscular atrophy. We are interested in understanding the molecular basis of this devastating disease and working towards to find a cure.

Current Projects

The main focus of our research is to study the mechanism(s) of cell death in spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). SMA is a pediatric neuromuscular disease characterized with motor neuron degeneration and muscle wasting. The disease is caused by either mutations or deletions of survival motor neuron gene (SMN1). We have shown that skin fibroblasts from SMA patients are more sensitive to certain chemical-induced cell death. We are currently using patient fibroblasts, PC12 cells and rat primary motor neuron cultures as our model systems to further investigate the biological pathways and signaling molecules that may be involved in this process.

Research Group

• Ilsa Gómez-Curet, Ph.D. - Research Associate (Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign). Studying the neuronal survival role of the survival motor neuron proteins, using rat primary motor neuron cultures as the model system.
• Darlise Dimatteo, B.S. - Research Associate (B.S., University of Delaware). Studying the protective role of the survival motor neuron protein in p53-induced cell death; the susceptibility of SMA fibroblasts to certain chemical-induced cell death.

Selected Publications

Wenlan Wang, Darlise DiMatteo, Vicky L. Funanage, Mena Scavina (2005). "Increased susceptibility of spinal muscular atrophy fibroblasts to camptothecin-induced cell death" Mol Genet. Metabol., 85:38-45.

Wenlan Wang, Zhaoping He, Thomas J. O'Shaughnessy, John J. Rux & William W. Reenstra (2002). "Domain-domain associations in Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator" Am. J. Physiol. 282:C1170-80.

Joo-Yeon Yoo, Wenlan Wang, Steve Desiderio & Daniel Nathans (2001). "Synergistic activity of Stat3 and c-jun at a specific array of DNA elements in the a2-macroglobulin promoter" J. Biol. Chem. 276:26421-9.

Wenlan Wang, MaryEllen Healy, Sattler M, Verma S, Lin J, Maulik G, Stiles CD, James Griffin, Bruce Johnson, Ravi Salgia (2000). "Growth inhibition and modulation of kinase pathways of small cell lung cancer cell lines by the novel tyrosine kinase inhibitor STI571" Oncogene 19:3521-8.

Andy Turnell, Roger J.A. Grand, Carlos Gorbea, Xian Zhang, Wenlan Wang, Joe S. Mymryk & Phillip H. Gallimore (2000). "Regulation of the 26S proteasome by adenovirus E1A" EMBO J. 19:4759-73.

Ohkmae K. Park, Laura K. Schaefer, Wenlan Wang & Timothy S. Schaefer (2000) "Dimer stability as a determinant of differential DNA binding activity of Stat3 isoforms" J. Biol. Chem. 275:32244-9.

Roger J.A. Grand, Andrew S Turner, Grant GF Mason, Wenlan Wang, et al. (1999). "Adenovirus early region 1A protein binds to mammalian SUG1-a regulatory component of the proteasome" Oncogene 18:449-58.

Wenlan Wang, Chevry Pierre & Daniel Nathans. (1996). "Mammalian Sug1 and c-Fos in the nuclear 26S proteasome" PNAS 93: 8236-40.

Rose Skopp, Wenlan Wang & Carolyn Price. (1996). "rTP- a telomere protein associated with replication bands" Chromosoma 105: 82-91.

Wenlan Wang, Rose Skopp, Margret Skofield & Carolyn Price. (1992). "Euplotes crassus has genes encoding telomere-binding proteins and telomere-binding protein homolog" Nucleic Acids Res. 20: 6621-9.