Biography

Xiaonan Wang graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a degree in Biotechnology in 2007. She received her MPhil and PhD in Bioinformatics from the University of Cambridge in 2010 and 2016. She worked as an industrial trainee at Pfizer R & D, UK during the 3rd year of her degree and worked at the Sanger Institute for a year before doing a master's degree. After her PhD, she worked as a post-doc in Prof. Bertie Gottgens’ group at the Stem Cell Institute, University of Cambridge, between 2016 and 2020.

Since January 2021, she has been an Associate Professor at School of Public Health, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiaotong University.

Funding

• National Natural Science Foundation of China, 82100465, 01/2022-12/2024

• Pujiang Talents Plan, 21PJ1409000, 10/2021-09/2023

• Startup Funding, BJ1-3000-21-0055, 01/2021-12/2026

Research

Atherosclerosis is a disease characterised by the accumulation of fibrofatty material in the inner wall of arteries. Concomitantly, these atherosclerotic plaques narrow and harden arteries, restricting blood flow to different organs and tissues, leading to severe diseases, such as myocardial infarction and stroke. Increasing evidence has pointed to the association between atherosclerosis and clonal haematopoiesis (CH), a disease with an expanded somatic blood-cell clone at the haematopoietic stem cell (HSC) level. However, if atherosclerosis leads to excessive expansion of somatic mutations in HSCs or, conversely, if CH, especially myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN) whose phenotypes were driven mainly by JAK2, CALR or MPL mutations, promotes the progression of atherosclerosis is still largely unknown. Hence, we are aiming at using different biological settings, single-cell mutiomics sequencing and mathematical models to interrogate this ‘chicken-or-egg’ question in-depth.

Key Publications

1. Li S, Guo W, Lau W, Zhang H, Zhan Z, Wang X#, Wang H#. The association of garlic intake and cardiovascular risk factors: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2022 Mar 29:1-19. doi: 10.1080/10408398.2022.2053657.

2. Wang X, Peticone C, Kotsopoulou E, Gottgens B, Calero-Nieto FJ. Single-cell transcriptome analysis of CAR T-cell products reveals subpopulations, stimulation, and exhaustion signatures. OncoImmunology. 2021 Jan 06;10(1): 1866287. doi:10.1080/2162402X.2020.1866287

3. Koth J*, Wang X*, Killen AC*, Stockdale WT, Potts HG, Jefferson A, Bonkhofer F, Riley PR, Patient RK, Göttgens B, Mommersteeg MTM. Runx1 promotes scar deposition and inhibits myocardial proliferation and survival during zebrafish heart regeneration. Development. 2020 Apr 27;147(8):dev186569. doi: 10.1242/dev.186569.

4. Basilico S*, Wang X*, Kennedy A, Tzelepis K, Giotopoulos G, Kinston SJ, Quiros PM, Wong K, Adams DJ, Carnevalli LS, Huntly BJP, Vassiliou GS, Calero-Nieto FJ, Göttgens B. Dissecting the early steps of MLL induced leukaemogenic transformation using a mouse model of AML. Nat Commun. 2020 Mar 16;11(1):1407. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-15220-0.

5. Lescroart F*, Wang X*, Lin X*, Swedlund B, Gargouri S, Sànchez-Dànes A, Moignard V, Dubois C, Paulissen C, Kinston S, Göttgens B, Blanpain C. Defining the earliest step of cardiovascular lineage segregation by single-cell RNA-seq. Science. 2018 Mar 9;359(6380):1177-1181.

6. Hérault A, Binnewies M, Leong S, Calero-Nieto FJ, Zhang SY, Kang YA, Wang X, Pietras EM, Chu SH, Barry-Holson K, Armstrong S, Göttgens B, Passegué E. Myeloid progenitor cluster formation drives emergency and leukaemicmyelopoiesis. Nature. 2017 Apr 6;544(7648):53-58.

7. Wilson NK, Foster SD, Wang X, Knezevic K, Schütte J, Kaimakis P, Chilarska PM, Kinston S, Ouwehand WH, Dzierzak E, Pimanda JE, de Bruijn MF, Göttgens B. Combinatorial transcriptional control in blood stem/progenitor cells: genome-wide analysis of ten major transcriptional regulators. Cell Stem Cell. 2010 Oct 8;7(4):532-44.

Other Publications

1. Nardelli SC, Silmon de Monerri NC, Vanagas L, Wang X, Tampaki Z, Sullivan WJ Jr, Angel SO, Kim K. Genome-wide localization of histone variants in Toxoplasma gondii implicates variant exchange in stage-specific gene expression. BMC Genomics. 2022 Feb 14;23(1):128. doi: 10.1186/s12864-022-08338-6.

2. Yun H, Narayan N, Vohra S, Giotopoulos G, Mupo A, Madrigal P, Sasca D, Lara-Astiaso D, Horton SJ, Agrawal-Singh S, Meduri E, Basheer F, Marando L, Gozdecka M, Dovey OM, Castillo-Venzor A, Wang X, Gallipoli P, Müller-Tidow C, Osborne CS, Vassiliou GS, Huntly BJP. Mutational synergy during leukemia induction remodels chromatin accessibility, histone modifications and three-dimensional DNA topology to alter gene expression. Nat Genet. 2021 Oct;53(10):1443-1455. doi: 10.1038/s41588-021-00925-9.

3. Zheng J, Li J, Pei T, Zhu T, Cheong IH, Li S, Wang X, Hall BJ, Li X, Wang H. Depressive symptoms and chronic lung disease in middle-aged and older Chinese adults: Prospective bidirectional association and mediation analysis. J Affect Disord. 2021 Oct 21;297:283-293. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2021.10.023.

4. Liu C, Yang Y, Chen C, Li L, Li J, Wang X, Chu Q, Qiu L, Ba Q, Li X, Wang H. Environmental eustress modulates β-ARs/CCL2 axis to induce anti-tumor immunity and sensitize immunotherapy against liver cancer in mice. Nat Commun. 2021 Sep 30;12(1):5725. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-25967-9.

5. Hamey FK, Lau WWY, Kucinski I, Wang X, Diamanti E, Wilson NK, Göttgens B, Dahlin JS. Single-cell molecular profiling provides a high-resolution map of basophil and mast cell development. Allergy. 2020 Oct 20. doi: 10.1111/all.14633.

6. Vink CS, Calero-Nieto FJ, Wang X, Maglitto A, Mariani SA, Jawaid W, Göttgens B, Dzierzak E. Iterative Single-Cell Analyses Define the Transcriptome of the First Functional Hematopoietic Stem Cells. Cell Rep. 2020 May 12;31(6):107627. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.107627.

7. Porcheri C, Golan O, Calero-Nieto FJ, Thambyrajah R, Ruiz-Herguido C, Wang X, Catto F, Guillén Y, Sinha R, González J, Kinston SJ, Mariani SA, Maglitto A, Vink CS, Dzierzak E, Charbord P, Göttgens B, Espinosa L, Sprinzak D, Bigas A. Notch ligand Dll4 impairs cell recruitment to aortic clusters and limits blood stem cell generation. EMBO J. 2020 Apr 15;39(8):e104270. doi: 10.15252/embj.2019104270. Epub 2020 Mar 9.

8. Castaño J, Aranda S, Bueno C, Calero-Nieto FJ, Mejia-Ramirez E, Mosquera JL, Blanco E, Wang X, Prieto C, Zabaleta L, Mereu E, Rovira M, Jiménez-Delgado S, Matson DR, Heyn H, Bresnick EH, Göttgens B, Di Croce L, Menendez P, Raya A, Giorgetti A. GATA2 Promotes Hematopoietic Development and Represses Cardiac Differentiation of Human Mesoderm. Stem Cell Reports. 2019 Sep 10;13(3):515-529. doi: 10.1016/j.stemcr.2019.07.009. Epub 2019 Aug 8

9. Bueno C, Calero-Nieto FJ, Wang X, Valdés-Mas R, Gutiérrez-Agüera F, Roca-Ho H, Ayllon V, Real PJ, Arambile D, Espinosa L, Torres-Ruiz R, Agraz-Doblas A, Varela I, de Boer J, Bigas A, Gottgens B, Marschalek R, Menendez P. Enhanced hemato-endothelial specification during human embryonic differentiation through developmental cooperation between AF4-MLL and MLL-AF4 fusions. Haematologica. 2019 Jan 24.

10. Belluschi S, Calderbank EF, Ciaurro V, Pijuan-Sala B, Santoro A, Mende N, Diamanti E, Sham KYC, Wang X, Lau WWY, Jawaid W, Göttgens B, Laurenti E. Myelo-lymphoid lineage restriction occurs in the human haematopoietic stem cell compartment before lymphoid-primed multipotent progenitors. Nat Commun. 2018 Oct 5;9(1):4100.

11. Gracia T, Wang X, Su Y, Norgett EE, Williams TL, Moreno P, Micklem G, Frankl FE. Urinary Exosomes Contain MicroRNAs Capable of Paracrine Modulation of Tubular Transporters in Kidney. Sci Rep. 2017 Jan 17;7:40601.

12. Dawson MA, Foster SD, Bannister AJ, Robson SC, Hannah R, Wang X, Xhemalce B, Wood AD, Green AR, Göttgens B, Kouzarides T. Three distinct patterns of histone H3Y41 phosphorylation mark active genes. Cell Rep. 2012 Sep 27;2(3):470-7.

13. Tijssen MR1, Cvejic A, Joshi A, Hannah RL, Ferreira R, Forrai A, Bellissimo DC, Oram SH, Smethurst PA, Wilson NK, Wang X, Ottersbach K, Stemple DL, Green AR, Ouwehand WH, Göttgens B. Ouwehandand Berthold Göttgens. Genome-wide Analysis of Simultaneous GATA1/2, RUNX1, FLI1, and SCL Binding in Megakaryocytes Identifies Hematopoietic Regulators. Dev Cell. 2011 May 17;20(5):597-609.

14. Joshi N., Wang X, Montgomery, L., Elfick, A., and French, C. Novel approaches to biosensors for detection of arsenic in drinking water. Desalination 2010. 252, 100-106.

15. Wang X, Burrows J. Assessment of Dry Powder Lactose Formulation Characteristics for Delivery to Rat Airways. DDL17, 2006.