Education

Ph.D.
Texas A&M Health Science Center 2010
Postdoctoral Fellow
Baylor College of Medicine 2014

Areas of Interest

Research Interests

Dr. Wang’s research focuses on delineating the molecular signals regulating craniofacial and cardiac development, diseases and regeneration. She uses a combination of state-of-the-art methodologies, including different mouse techniques, physiology studies, and next generation sequencing techniques. Over 60 publications in Circulation, Developmental Cell, Development, Nature, Plos Genetics,  PNAS, Science and Science Signaling, have resulted from her work. She has received many honors and awards during her career such as the Michael Bilitch Fellowship, Lawrence Bone Research Award, American Heart Association Career Development Award and Established Investigator Award, NIH K01, The University of Texas System Rising STARs Award and Women Faculty Forum Rising Star Award.

Publications

View my Bibliography

  • 2023

    2022

    • Erhardt S, Wang J. Cardiac Neural Crest and Cardiac Regeneration. Cells. 2022 Dec 28;12(1). doi: 10.3390/cells12010111. Review. PubMed PMID: 36611905; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9818523.
    • Zheng M, Li RG, Song J, Zhao X, Tang L, Erhardt S, Chen W, Nguyen BH, Li X, Li M, Wang J, Evans SM, Christoffels VM, Li N, Wang J. Hippo-Yap Signaling Maintains Sinoatrial Node Homeostasis. Circulation. 2022 Nov 29;146(22):1694-1711. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.121.058777. Epub 2022 Nov 1. PubMed PMID: 36317529; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9897204.
    • Hu H, Wang L, Li H, Li H, Chen X, Peng W, Wang J, Zhao Y, Liu M, Li D. Long-term amelioration of an early-onset familial atrial fibrillation model with AAV-mediated in vivo gene therapy. Fundamental Research. 2022 November; 2(6):829-835.
    • Zhao X, Tang L, Le TP, Nguyen BH, Chen W, Zheng M, Yamaguchi H, Dawson B, You S, Martinez-Traverso IM, Erhardt S, Wang J, Li M, Martin JF, Lee BH, Komatsu Y, Wang J. Yap and Taz promote osteogenesis and prevent chondrogenesis in neural crest cells in vitro and in vivo. Sci Signal. 2022 Oct 25;15(757):eabn9009. doi: 10.1126/scisignal.abn9009.  (Cover Story)
    • Ding Y, Lang D, Yan J, Bu H, Li H, Jiao K, Yang J, Ni H, Morotti S, Le T, Clark KJ, Port J, Ekker SC, Cao H, Zhang Y, Wang J, Grandi E, Li Z, Shi Y, Li Y, Glukhov AV, Xu X. A phenotype-based forward genetic screen identifies Dnajb6 as a sick sinus syndrome gene. Elife. 2022 Oct 18;11. doi: 10.7554/eLife.77327. [Epub ahead of print]
    • Martínez-Traverso IM, Steimle J, Zhao X, Wang J*, and Martin JF*. LATS1/2 control TGF-beta directed EMT in the dorsal cranial neuroepithelium through YAP regulation. Development 2022 Sep 15;149(18). doi: 10.1242/dev.200860. (*Corresponding Author) (Cover Story)
    • Hill MC, Kadow Z, Long H, Morikawa Y, Martin TJ, Birks EJ, Campbell KS, Nerbonne J, Lavine K, Wadhwa L, Wang J, Turaga D, Adachi I and Martin JF. Integrated multiomic characterization of congenital heart disease. Nature 2022 Aug;608(7921):181-191. doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-04989-3.
    • Tang L, Zhong Z, Lin Y, Yang Y, Wang J, Martin JF, Li M. EPIXplorer: A web server for prediction, analysis and visualization of enhancer-promoter interactions. Nucleic Acids Research2022 May 25;gkac397. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkac397. Online ahead of print.
    • Hu H, Wang L, Li H, Li H, Chen X, Wang L, Peng W, Wang J, Zhao Y, Liu M, and Li D. Long-term amelioration of an early-onset familial atrial fibrillation model with AAV-mediated in vivo gene therapy. Fundamental Research https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fmre.2022.05.002  In Press, Corrected Proof
    • Pandya M, Gopinathan G, Tillberg C, Wang J, Luan X, Diekwisch TGH. The Hippo Pathway Effectors YAP/TAZ Are Essential for Mineralized Tissue Homeostasis in the Alveolar Bone/Periodontal Complex J. Dev. Biol. 2022, 10(1), 14
    • Liu K, Li H, Li Y, Wang J, Wang J. A comparison of topologically associating domain callers based on Hi-C data. IEEE/ACM Trans Comput Biol Bioinform. 2022, PP. doi: 10.1109/TCBB.2022.3147805. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 35104223.
    • Lin CX, Li HD, Deng C, Erhardt S, Wang J, Peng X, Wang J. AlzCode: a Platform for Multiview Analysis of Genes Related to Alzheimer’s Disease. 2022, doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btac033. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 35040932.
    • Lin CX, Li HD, Deng C, Liu W, Erhardt S, Wu FX, Zhao XM, Guan Y, Wang J, Wang D, Hu B, Wang J. An integrated brain-specific network identifies genes associated with neuropathologic and clinical traits of Alzheimer’s disease. Brief Bioinform. 2022, 23(1):bbab522. doi: 10.1093/bib/bbab522.

    2021

    • Zheng M, Erhardt S, Ai D, and Wang J. Bmp signaling regulates Hand1 in a dose-dependent manner during heart development International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2021, 22(18), 9835; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22189835 2021
    • Liu S, Tang L, Zhao X, Nguyen B, Heallen T, Li M, Wang J, Wang J, and Martin JF. Yap Promotes Noncanonical Wnt Signals from Cardiomyocytes for Heart Regeneration. 2021 129(8):782-797. DOI: 10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.121.318966 Cir. Res. 2021
    • Tram L, Zhao X, Erhardt S, Gu J, Wang H, Findley T, Wang J. An Optimized O9-1/hydrogel System for Studying Mechanical Signals in Neural Crest Cells. J Vis Exp. (174), e62693, doi:10.3791/62693  2021
    • Erhardt S, Zheng M, Zhao X, Le TP, Findley T, and Wang J. The Cardiac Neural Crest Cells in Heart Development and Congenital Heart Defects. J. Cardiovasc. Dev. Dis. 2021, 8(8), 89
    • Zhao XL, Le TP, Erhardt S, Findley T, Wang J.  Hippo-Yap pathway orchestrates neural crest development. Front. Cell Dev. Biol. 2021;9:706623. doi:10.3389/fcell.2021.706623. PMID: 34307386; PMCID: PMC8298320. 2021
    • Zhang Z, Hong W, Ruan H, Jing Y, Li S, Liu Y, Wang J, Li W, Diao L, Han L. HeRA: an atlas of enhancer RNAs across human tissues Nucleic Acids ResearchJ49(D1):D932-D938. PMID: 33119754 PMCID: PMC7779069. 2021

    2020

    • Tang L, Hill MC, Wang J, Wang J, Martin JF, and Li M. Predicting unrecognized enhancer-mediated genome topology by an ensemble machine learning model. Genome Research 2020 Nov 12;. doi: 10.1101/gr.264606.120. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 33184104.
    • Zhang Z, Jing J, Ye Y, Chen Z, Jing Y, Li S, Hong W, Ruan H, Liu Y, Hu Q, Wang J, Li W, Lin C, Diao L, Zhou Y, Han L. Characterization of the dual functional effects of heat shock proteins (HSPs) in cancer hallmarks to aid development of HSP inhibitors. Genome Med. 12(1):101. PubMed PMID: 33225964; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7682077. 2020
    • Zheng M, Jacob J, Hung SH and Wang J. The Hippo Pathway in Cardiac Regeneration and Homeostasis: New Perspectives for Cell-Free Therapy in the Injured Heart.   Biomolecules. 10(7):E1024. PMID: 32664346. 2020
    • Yang L, Wang L, Huo Y, Chen X, Yin S, Hu Y, Zhang X, Zheng R, Geng H, Han H, Ma X, Liu M, Li H, Yu W, Liu M, Wang J, Li D. Amelioration of an Inherited Metabolic Liver Disease through Creation of a De Novo Start Codon by Cytidine Base Editing. Molecular Therapy 28(7):1673-1683 PubMed PMID: 32413280. 2020
    • Heallen TR, Kadow ZA, Wang J, Martin JF. Determinants of Cardiac Growth and Size. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol. 12(3):a037150. PMID: 31615785. PMCID: PMC7050588. 2020

    2019

    • Yang Xiao, Matthew C. Hill, Lele Li, Vaibhav Deshmukh, Thomas J. Martin,Jun Wang, and James F. Martin. Hippo Pathway Deletion in Adult Resting Cardiac Fibroblasts Initiates a Cell State Transition with Spontaneous and Self-Sustaining Fibrosis, Genes and Development 2019 Nov 1;33(21-22):1491-1505.
    • Vaibhav Deshmukh,Jun Wang, and James F. Martin. Leading progress in heart regeneration and repair. Curr Opin Cell Biol. 2019 61:79-85. PMID: 31408771
    • Chengzhi Xie, Guoxing Liu, Min Li, Yu Fang, Ke Qian,Yu Tang, Xiaolong Wu, Xiaohua Lei, Xiaocheng Li, Qiang Liu, Gao Liu, Jiefeng Liu, Yueming Zhang, Zhao Huang, Zecheng Hu, Zhenyu Cao, Jixiong Hu, Shengfu Huang, Dewu Zhong, Jiangsheng Huang, Fangxiang Wu, Jun Wang, Masaki Mori, Hirofumi Yamamoto, Jianxin Wang, Xundi Xu. Targeting TRPV1 on cellular plasticity regulated by Ovol 2 and Zeb 1 in hepatocellular carcinoma. Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy. 2019 118:109270. PMID: 31401394.
    • Todd R. Heallen, Zachary A. Kadow, Jong W. Kim,Jun Wang, and James F. Martin. Stimulating Cardiogenesis as a Treatment for Heart Failure. Cir Res 2019 124(11):1647-1657 PMID: 31120819
    • Qing Yu, Wenxin Kou, Xu Xu, Shunping Zhou, Peipei Luan, Xiaopeng Xu, Hailing Li, Jianhui Zhuang, Jun Wang, Yifan Zhao, Yawei Xu, Wenhui Peng. FNDC5/Irisin inhibits pathological cardiac hypertrophy. Clin Sci (Lond). 2019 133(5):611-627.

    Selected from previous publications:

    1) Bao H. Nguyen, Mamoru Ishii, Robert E Maxon, Jun Wang. Culturing and Manipulation of O9-1 Neural Crest Cells. Journal of Visualized Experiments 2018 (140). doi: 10.3791/58346.
    2) Jun Wang *, Shijie Liu, Todd Heallen, and James F. Martin*. The Hippo pathway in the heart: pivotal roles in development, disease, and regeneration. Nature Reviews Cardiology. 2018 15(11):672-684 (*Corresponding Author)
    3) Jun Wang * and James F. Martin*. Hippo Pathway: An Emerging Regulator of Craniofacial and Dental Development. J Dent Res. 2017 96(11):1229-1237. (*Corresponding Author)
    4) Joshua W. Vincentz, Ralston M. Barnes, Jianwen Que, David E. Clouthier, Jun Wang , and Anthony B. Firulli. Exclusion of Dlx5/6 expression from the distal-most mandibular arches enables BMP-mediated specification of the distal cap. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016; 113(27):7563-8
    5) Jun Wang *, Yang Xiao, Chih-Wei Hsu, Idaliz M. Martinez-Traverso, Min Zhang, Yan Bai, Mamoru Ishii, Robert E. Maxson, Eric N. Olson, Mary E. Dickinson, Joshua D. Wythe, James F. Martin*. Yap and Taz play a crucial role in neural crest-derived craniofacial development. Development. 2016; 143(3):504-15 (*Corresponding Author).
    6) Jun Wang , Yan Bai, Na Li, Wenduo Ye, Stephanie B. Greene, Min Zhang, Ye Tao, Yiping Chen, Xander H.T. Wehrens and James F. Martin. A Pitx2-microRNA pathway that delimits sinoatrial node development and inhibits predisposition to atrial fibrillation. 2014, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 111(25):9181-6.
    7) Jun Wang and James F. Martin. Macro advances in microRNAs and myocardial regeneration. 2014, Current Opinion in Cardiology 29(3):207-13.
    8) Jun Wang , Yan Bai, Hong Li, Stephanie B. Greene, Elzbieta Klysik, Wei Yu, Robert J. Schwartz, Trevor J. Williams and James F. Martin. MicroRNA-17-92, a direct Ap-2α transcriptional target, modulates T-box factor activity in orofacial clefting. 2013, PLoS Genet, 9:e1003785.
    9) Margarita Bonilla-Claudio, Jun Wang , Yan Bai, Ela Klysik, Jennifer Selever, and James F. Martin. Bmp signaling regulates a dosage dependent transcriptional program to control facial skeletal development. 2012, Development 139(4):709-19.
    10) Todd Heallen, Min Zhang, Jun Wang , Margarita Bonilla-Claudio, Ela Klysik, Randy L. Johnson, James F. Martin. Hippo pathway inhibits Wnt signaling to restrain cardiomyocyte proliferation and heart size. 2011, Science 332(6028):458-61
    Perspective by Michael D. Schneider. A Cardiac Nonproliferation Treaty. 2011, Science 332(6028):426-7
    11) Jun Wang , Stephanie B. Greene, and James F. Martin. Bmp Signaling in Congenital Heart Disease: New Developments and Future Directions. 2011, Birth Defects Res A Clin Mol Teratol 91(6):441-8.
    12) Jun Wang , Stephanie B. Greene, Margarita Bonilla-Claudio, Ye Tao, Jue Zhang, Yan Bai, Zheng Huang, Brian L. Black, Fen Wang, and James F. Martin. Bmp-signaling regulates myocardial differentiation from cardiac progenitors through a micro RNA-mediated mechanism. 2010, Dev Cell 19(6), 903-12.
    Preview: Sylvia M. Evans, Alessandra Moretti, and Karl-Ludwig Laugwitz. MicroRNAs in a Cardiac Loop: Progenitor or Myocyte? 2010, Dev Cell 19(6):787-788.
    13) Jun Wang , Elzbieta Klysik, Subeena Sood, Randy L. Johnson, Xander H. T. Wehrens, and James F. Martin. Pitx2 prevents susceptibility to atrial arrhythmias by inhibiting left-sided pacemaker specification. 2010, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 107(21):9753-9758
    Reported by Science-Business exchange, from the makers of BioCentury and Nature: This week in therapeutics. 2010, SciBX 3(21): 12; doi: 10.1038/scibx.2010.644
    14) Di Ai, Xueyao Fu, Jun Wang , Mei-Fang Lu, Li Chen, Antonio Baldini, William H. Klein, and James F. Martin, Canonical Wnt signaling functions in second heart field to promote right ventricular growth, 2007, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 104: 9319-24.
    15) Di Ai, Jun Wang, Melanie Amen, Mei-Fang Lu, Brad A. Amendt, and James F. Martin. Nuclear factor-1 and TCF/LEF recognition elements regulate Pitx2 transcription in pituitary development. 2007, Mol Cell Biol 27: 5765-75.