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J-Y Wang, MD, PhD

Joseph and Corinne Schwartz Professor of Surgery

Academic Title:

Professor

Primary Appointment:

Surgery

Secondary Appointment(s):

Pathology

Administrative Title:

Vice Chair

Location:

10 North Greene, VAMC 5C-122

Phone (Primary):

(410) 605-7000 ×5678

Phone (Secondary):

(410) 706-1049

Fax:

(410) 706-1051

Education and Training

Dr. Jian-Ying Wang received his medical degree from Sun Yat-Sen University School of Medicine in China, and PhD degree from Peking (Beijing) University School of Medicine.  He completed his postdoctoral training at Kyoto Pharmaceutical University, Japan, and University of Texas School of Medicine at Houston. 

Dr. Wang joined the faculty of University of Maryland School of Medicine as Assistant Professor in 1994.  He was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 1998 and has been Professor from 2002.  Dr. Wang has been appointed as Associate Chair for Basic Research, Department of Surgery from 2005.  Dr. Wang has been awarded as the Joseph and Corinne Schwartz Endowed-Professorship from 2012.  Dr. Wang is also an investigator of Biomedical Laboratory Research & Development Service, US Department of Veterans Affairs, and he has been selected as an honor position of Senior Research Career Scientist from 2011. 

Dr. Wang has had many seminal research accomplishments throughout his career and published more than 150 peer-reviewed original research articles.  His research program has been continuously funded by multiple NIH grants, VA MERIT-Review awards, and VA Career Scientist Award over twenty-three years.  Dr. Wang’s service to the scientific community is exceptional, as he serves as a member of multiple NIH study sections and VA MERIT-Review study sections, and he is also on the editorial board for several scientific journals.  

Dr. Wang has successfully mentored young scientists and junior faculty.  Over the past ten years, >30 surgical residents, research fellows, graduate students, and junior faculty members have worked at Dr. Wang’s group; six trainees under Dr. Wang's mentorship received NIH grants (K01, R21, and R01), VA Career development Awards, and VA MERIT-Review Awards.   

Research/Clinical Keywords

Gut Mucosal Regeneration; Gut Barrier Function; Injury and Repair; Posttranscriptional Regulation; RNA Binding Proteins; Long-Noncoding RNAs

Highlighted Publications

  1. Zou T, Mazan-Mamczarz K, Rao JN, Liu L, Marasa BS, Zhang AH, Xiao L, Pullmann R, Gorospe M, and Wang JY.  Polyamine depletion increases cytoplasmic levels of RNA-binding protein HuR leading to stabilization of nucleophosmin and p53 mRNAs.  J Biol Chem 281:19387-19394, 2006.

  2. Xiao L, Rao JN, Zou T, Liu L, Marasa BS, Chen J, Turner DJ, Zhou H, Gorospe M, and Wang JYPolyamines regulate the stability of activating transcription factor-2 mRNA through RNA-binding protein HuR in intestinal epithelial cells.  Mol Biol Cell 18:4579-4590, 2007.

  3. Chen J, Rao JN, Zou T, Lan L, Xiao L, Bellavance E, Gorospe M, and Wang JY.  JunD represses transcription and translation of the tight junction protein zona occludens-1 modulating intestinal epithelial barrier function.  Mol Biol Cell 19:3701-3712, 2008.

  4. Zhang X, Zou T, Rao JN, Liu L, Xaio L, Wang PY, Cui YH, Gorospe M, and Wang JY.  Stabilization of XIAP mRNA through the RNA-binding protein HuR regulated by cellular polyamines.  Nucleic Acids Res 37:7623-7637, 2009.

  5. Zou T, Rao JN, Liu L, Xiao L, Yu TX, Jiang P, Gorospe M, and Wang JY.  Polyamines regulate the stability of JunD mRNA by modulating the competitive binding to its 3’ untranslated region to HuR and AUF1.  Mol Cell Biol 30: 5021-5032, 2010.

  6. Xiao L, Cui YH, Rao JN, Zou T, lIU l, Yu TX, Smith A, Turner DJ, Gorospe M, and Wang JY.  Regulation of cycylin-dependent kinase 4 translation through CUGBP1 and miR-222 by polyamines.  Mol Biol Cell 22: 3055-3069, 2011.

  7. Cui YH, Xiao L, Rao JN, Zou T, Liu L, Chen Y, Turner DJ, Gorospe M, and Wang JY.  miR-503 represses CUG-binding protein 1 translation by recruiting CUGBP1 mRNA to processing bodies.  Mol Biol Cell 23: 151-162, 2012.

  8. Zhuang R, Rao JN, Zou T, Liu L, Xiao L, Cao S, Hansraj NZ, Gorospe M, and Wang JY.  miR-195 competes with HuR to modulate Stim1 mRNA stability and regulate cell migration.  Nucleic Acids Res41:7905-7919, 2013.

  9. Liu L, Christodoulou-Vafeiadou E, Rao JN, Zou T, Xiao L, Chung HK, Yang H, Gorospe M, Kontoyiannis D, Wang JY.  RNA-binding protein HuR promotes growth of small intestinal mucosa by activating the Wnt signaling pathway.  Mol Bio Cell 25:3308-3318, 2014.

  10. Chung HK, Chen Y, Rao JN, Liu L, Xiao L, Turner DJ, Yang P, Gorospe M, and Wang JY.  Transgenic expression of miR-222 disrupts intestinal epithelial regeneration by targeting multiple genes including Frizzled-7.  Mol Med21:676-687, 2015.

  11. Liu L, Rao JN, Zou T, Xiao L, Chung HK, Wu J, Gorospe M, and Wang JY.  Competition between RNA-binding proteins CELF1 and HuR modulates MYC translation and intestinal epithelium renewal.  Mol Biol Cell 26:1797-1810, 2015.

  12. Zou T, Liu L, Rao JN, Xiao L, Chung HK, Chen G, Gorospe M, and Wang JY. H19 long noncoding RNA regulates intestinal epithelial barrier function via microRNA 675 by interacting with RNA-binding protein HuR.  Mol Cell Biol 36:1332-1341, 2016.

  13. Xiao L, Rao JN,Cao S, Liu L, Chung HK, Zhang Y, Liu Y, Gorospe M, and Wang JY. Long noncoding RNA SPRY4-IT1 regulates intestinal epithelial barrier function by modulating the expression levels of tight junction proteins.  Mol Biol Cell27: 617-626, 2016.

  14. Liu L, Zhuang R, Xiao L, Chung HK, Luo J, Turner DJ, Rao JN, Gorospe M, and Wang JY.  HuR enhances restitution of the intestinal epithelium by increasing Cdc42 translation.  Mol Cell Biol 37:e00574-16, 2017.

  15. Zhang Y, Zhang Y, Yu TX, Xiao L, Li JZ, Rao JN, Turner DJ, Gorospe M, and Wang JY.  Cooperative repression of insulin-like growth factor tyoe 2 receptor translation by microRNA 195 and RNA-binding protein CUGBP1.  Mol Cell Biol37:e00225-17, 2017.

Additional Publication Citations

Research Interests

Dr. Wang's research is to define the roles and mechanisms of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) and noncoding (nc) RNAs in gut mucosal regeneration, protection, and diseases.  His laboratory is particularly interested in the regulation of mRNA turnover and translation during mucosal growth, injury/repair, and epithelial barrier dysfunction.  Dr. Wang’s research program studies stress-related processes regulated by RBPs and ncRNAs, the post-translational events that affect target gene expression in the presence or absence of cellular polyamines, and the interplay between RBPs and ncRNAs in the gut epithelium homeostasis.  Dr. Wang’s group employs approaches that examine specific mRNAs as well as approaches focused on large-scale RNA analyses (microarray, RIP and ribosome profiling). His group has also used gain-of-function transgenic and tissue-specific knockout approaches to generate various genetically modified animal models.  The comprehensive approach and experience have provided him with an appreciation for the need to study mucosal tissue and cells directly, and to move back and forth from human disease to model systems and to validate key findings in the human context.  Importantly, Dr. Wang's research projects are directly relevant to surgical patients with massive mucosal injury/delayed healing, maladaptation, barrier dysfunction, systemic inflammation, and sepsis.

Grants and Contracts

Department of Veterans Affairs

National Institutes of Health