Haojia Wu, PhD

Haojia Wu, PhD

Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Nephrology

Education

Bachelors of Science in Biochemistry from the Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

PhD in the Department of Medicine at The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Research Interests

Molecular profiling of individual cell types in mouse and human kidney.

Professional Societies and Organizations

2010-2015
Associate Member, Hong Kong Society of Nephrology

2016-2017
Fellow Member, American Society of Nephrology

2017-2018
Full Member, American Society of Nephrology

Publications

Peer reviewed papers

Huang J, Deng K, Wu H, Liu Z, Chen Z, Cao S, Zhou L, Ye X, Keefe DL, and Liu L. Efficient production of mice from embryonic stem cells injected into four- or eight-cell embryos by piezo micromanipulation. Stem Cells. 2008 26(7):1883–90.

Cao S, Wang F, Chen Z, Liu Z, Mei C, Wu H, Huang J, Li C, Zhou L, and Liu L. Isolation and culture of primary bovine embryonic stem cell colonies by a novel method. J Exp Zool A Ecol Genet Physiol. 2009 311(5):368-376.

Lin M, Yiu WH, Wu H, Chan LY, Leung JC, Au WS, Chan KW, Lai KN, and Tang SC. Toll-like receptor 4 promotes tubular inflammation in diabetic nephropathy. J Am Soc Nephrol. 2012 23(1):86-102.

Lin M, Yiu WH, Li RX, Wu H, Wong DW, Chan LY, Leung JC, Lai KN, and Tang SC. The TLR4 antagonist CRX-526 protects against advanced diabetic nephropathy. Kidney Int. 2013 83(5):887-900.

Wu H, Yiu WH, Li RX, Wong DW, Chan LY, Leung JC, Zhang YL, Lian QZ, Lin M, Tse HF, Lai KN, and Tang SC. Mesenchymal stem cells modulate albumin-induced renal tubular inflammation and fibrosis. PLoS ONE. 2014 9(3).

Li RX, Yiu WH, Wu H, Wong DW, Chan LY, Lin M, Leung JC, Lai KN, and Tang SC. BMP7 reduces inflammation and oxidative stress in diabetic tubulopathy. Clin Sci (Lond). 2015 128(4):269-280.

Chan GC, Yiu, WH, Wu H, Wong DW, Lin M, Huang XR, Lan HY, Tang SC. N-Acetyl-seryl-aspartyl-lysyl-proline Alleviates Renal Fibrosis Induced by Unilateral Ureteric Obstruction in BALB/C Mice. Mediators Inflamm, 2015 283123.

Yiu WH, Wong DW, Wu H, Li RX, Yam I, Chan LY, Leung JC, Lan HY, Lai KN, and Tang SC. Kallistatin protects against diabetic nephropathy in db/db mice by suppressing AGE-RAGE-induced oxidative stress. Kidney Int. 2016 89(2):386-398.

Wong DW, Yiu WH, Wu H, Li RX, Liu Y, Chan KW, Leung JC, Chan LY, Lai KN, and Tang SC. Downregulation of renal tubular Wnt/β-catenin signaling by Dickkopf-3 induces tubular cell death in proteinuric nephropathy. Cell Death Dis., 2016 7(3).

Chan GC, Wu H, Chan KW, Yiu S, Zou A, Huang XR, Lan HY, Lai KN, Tang SC. N-acetyl-seryl-aspartyl-lysyl-proline Mediates the Anti-fibrotic Properties of Captopril in Unilateral Ureteric Obstructed BALB/C Mice. Nephrology (Carlton). 2017 doi: 10.1111/nep.13000.

Wu H, Yiu WH, Wong DW, Li RX, Chan LY, Leung JC, Zhang Y, Lian Q, Lai KN, Tse HF, Tang SC. Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells Prevent Adriamycin Nephropathy in Mice. Oncotarget. 2017 8;103640-103656

Wu H, Uchimura K, Donnelly E, Kirita Y, Samantha MA, Humphreys BD. Comparative analysis of kidney organoid and adult human kidney single cell and single nucleus transcriptomes. bioRxiv. 2017 https://doi.org/10.1101/232561

Yiu WH, Li RX, Wong DW, Wu H, KW Chan, LYY Chan, JCK Leung, Lai KN, Sacks SH, Zhou W, Tang SC. Complement C5a inhibition moderates lipid metabolism and reduces tubulointerstitial fibrosis in diabetic nephropathy. Nephrol Dial Transplant. 2018 doi:10.1093/ndt/gfx336.

Kramann R, Machado F, Wu H, Kusaba T, Hoeft K, Schneider RK, Humphreys BD. Parabiosis and single-cell RNA sequencing reveal a limited contribution of monocytes to myofibroblasts in kidney fibrosis. JCI Insight, 2018 3.

Wu H, Malone AF, Donnelly E, Kirita Y, Uchimura K, Ramakrishnan SM, Gaut J, Benjamin BD. Single-Cell Transcriptomics of a Human Kidney Allograft Biopsy Specimen Defines a Diverse Inflammatory Response. J Am Soc Nephrol. 2018 29(8):2069-2080 (Journal Cover, and Selected as the Top10 Stories in the year of 2018)

Ó hAinmhire E, Wu H, Muto Y, Donnelly EL, Machado FG, Fan LX, Chang-Panesso M, Humphreys BD. A conditionally immortalized Gli1-positive kidney mesenchymal cell line models myofibroblast transition. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol. 2019 316(1):F63-F75.

Wu H*, Uchimura K*, Donnelly EL, Kirita Y, Morris SA, Humphreys BD. Comparative Analysis and Refinement of Human PSC-Derived Kidney Organoid Differentiation with Single-Cell Transcriptomics. Cell Stem Cell. 2018 23(6):869-881.e8. ) (Selected as Best of Cell Stem Cell 2018)

Wu H, Kirita Y, Donnelly EL, Humphreys BD. Advantages of Single-Nucleus over Single-Cell RNA Sequencing of Adult Kidney: Rare Cell Types and Novel Cell States Revealed in Fibrosis. J Am Soc Nephrol. 2019 30(1):23-32.

Morris AP, Le TH, Wu H, Akbarov A, van der Most PJ, Hemani G, Smith GD, Mahajan A, Gaulton KJ, Nadkarni GN, Valladares-Salgado A, Wacher-Rodarte N, Mychaleckyj JC, Dueker ND, Guo X, Hai Y, Haessler J, Kamatani Y, Stilp AM, Zhu G, Cook JP, Ärnlöv J, Blanton SH, de Borst MH, Bottinger EP, Buchanan TA, Cechova S, Charchar FJ, Chu PL, Damman J, Eales J, Gharavi AG, Giedraitis V, Heath AC, Ipp E, Kiryluk K, Kramer HJ, Kubo M, Larsson A, Lindgren CM, Lu Y, Madden PAF, Montgomery GW, Papanicolaou GJ, Raffel LJ, Sacco RL, Sanchez E, Stark H, Sundstrom J, Taylor KD, Xiang AH, Zivkovic A, Lind L, Ingelsson E, Martin NG, Whitfield JB, Cai J, Laurie CC, Okada Y, Matsuda K, Kooperberg C, Chen YI, Rundek T, Rich SS, Loos RJF, Parra EJ, Cruz M, Rotter JI, Snieder H, Tomaszewski M, Humphreys BD, Franceschini N. Trans-ethnic kidney function association study reveals putative causal genes and effects on kidney-specific disease aetiologies. Nat Commun. 2019 10(1):29. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-07867-7.

Wu H*, Lai CF*, Chang-Panesso M, Humphreys BD. Proximal Tubule Translational Profiling during Kidney Fibrosis Reveals Proinflammatory and Long Noncoding RNA Expression Patterns with Sexual Dimorphism. J Am Soc Nephrol . 2020 Jan;31(1):23-38. (Journal Cover)

Chang-Panesso M, Kadyrov FF, Lalli M, Wu H, Ikeda S, Kefaloyianni E, Abdelmageed MM, Herrlich A, Kobayashi A, Humphreys BD. FOXM1 drives proximal tubule proliferation during repair from acute ischemic kidney injury. J Clin Invest. 2019 Dec 2;129(12):5501-5517. 

Kirita Y, Wu H, Uchimura K, Wilson PC, Humphreys BD. Cell profiling of mouse acute kidney injury reveals conserved cellular responses to injury. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 Jul 7;117(27):15874-15883. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2005477117. Epub 2020 Jun 22.

Malone AF, Wu H, Fronick C, Fulton R, Gaut JP, Humphreys BD. Harnessing Expressed Single Nucleotide Variation and Single Cell RNA Sequencing To Define Immune Cell Chimerism in the Rejecting Kidney Transplant. J Am Soc Nephrol. 2020 Jul 15;. doi: 10.1681/ASN.2020030326.

Invited reviews

Wu H and Humphreys BD. The promise of single-cell RNA sequencing for kidney disease investigation. Kidney Int. 2017 92(6)1334-1342

Malone AF, Wu H, Humphreys BD. Bringing Renal Biopsy Interpretation Into the Molecular Age With Single-Cell RNA Sequencing. Semin Nephrol. 2018 38(1):31–39

Wu H and Humphreys BD. Single Cell Sequencing and Kidney Organoids Generated from Pluripotent Stem Cells. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol . 2020 Apr 7;15(4):550-556