Biography

1999.9-2003.6, Bachelor's degree, Pharmaceutical engineering, Shandong University, China

2003.9-2008.3, Ph.D., Microbiology, Shanghai Jiaotong University, China

2006.3-2008.2, visiting Ph.D. student in Bioengineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

2008.4-2010.12, postdoctoral researcher, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA

2011.1-present, Chu-Tian Distinguished Professor, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China

Research

Researchers have been synthesizing DNA bearing phosphorothioate (PT) modification for decades. Because this functional group confers nuclease resistance of DNA's phosphate backbone. Prof. Wang pioneered the discovery of the naturally occurring PT modification in the bacterial DNA governed by dnd and ssp genes. She later identified that PT modification is widespread in prokaryotes and exhibits unusual molecule-to-molecule heterogeneity in a population of cells. However, PTs can still couple with DndFGH, SspE or SspFGH to fend off phages in mechanisms that are different from the canonical DNA methylation-based restriction-modification systems. Prof. Wang’s work expands the knowledge about the chemical structure of DNA modification as well as known arsenal of defence systems in prokaryotes. Currently, her research focuses on the study of host-phage interactions and the synthetic biological application of defense systems in engineering phage-resistant strain to deal with the phage contamination threat in laboratory and industry.

Representative  Publications

1. Xiong X, Wu G, Wei Y, Liu L, Zhang Y, et al. 2020. SspABCD–SspE is a phosphorothioation-sensing bacterial defence system with broad anti-phage activities. Nature Microbiology. 5:917-928

2. Wu D, Tang Y, Chen S, He Y, Chang X, et al. 2022. The functional coupling between restriction and DNA phosphorothioate modification systems underlying the DndFGH restriction complex. Nature Catalysis. 5:1131-1144

3. Wu X, Cao B, Aquino P, Chiu T-P, Chen C, et al. 2020. Epigenetic competition reveals density-dependent regulation and target site plasticity of phosphorothioate epigenetics in bacteria. PNAS 117:14322-14330

4. Gao H, Gong X, Zhou J, Zhang Y, Duan J, et al. 2022. Nicking mechanism underlying the DNA phosphorothioate-sensing antiphage defense by SspE. Nature Communications 13:6773

5. Zou X, Xiao X, Mo Z, Ge Y, Jiang X, et al. 2022. Systematic strategies for developing phage resistant Escherichia coli strains. Nature Communications 13:4491

6. Cao B, Chen C, DeMott MS, Cheng Q, Clark TA, et al. 2014. Genomic mapping of phosphorothioates reveals partial modification of short consensus sequences. Nature Communications 5:3951

7. Wei Y, Huang Q, Tian X, Zhang M, He J, et al. 2021. Single-molecule optical mapping of the distribution of DNA phosphorothioate epigenetics. Nucleic Acids Research. 49:3672-3680

8. Wu MY, Chen L, Chen Q, Hu R, Xu X, Wang Y, Li J, Feng S, Dong C, Zhang XL, Li Z, Wang L, Chen S, Gu M. 2023. Engineered Phage with Aggregation-Induced Emission Photosensitizer in Cocktail Therapy against Sepsis. Advanced Materials. 2023 Feb;35(6):e2208578.

9. Wang S, Wan M, Huang R, Zhang Y, Xie Y, et al. 2021. SspABCD-SspFGH Constitutes a New Type of DNA Phosphorothioate-Based Bacterial Defense System. mBio. 12(2):e00613-21.

10.Wu MY, Xu X, Hu R, Chen Q, Chen L, Yuan Y, Li J, Zhou L, Feng S, Wang L, Chen S, Gu M. 2023. A Membra ne-Targeted Photosensitizer Prevents Drug Resistance and Induces Immune Response in Treating Candidiasis. Advanced Science. e2207736.