Research Summary

My lab studies how the different cell types in the liver, in particular the hepatocyte, are generated during development, patterned and maintained during adulthood, and regenerate after injury. Our long-term goals are to improve the understanding of liver disease pathophysiology and develop novel methods of treatment for liver diseases, including cell replacement therapy. Currently, we have two major research focuses: 1) understanding the biology of adult hepatocyte stem cells and 2) developing a liver cell atlas. We take innovative and integrated approaches to address these two areas using the tools of stem cell biology, developmental biology, genomics and tissue engineering.

I also study the porphyrias, a group of inherited diseases related to defects in heme synthesis pathway. I am a member of the Porphyrias Consortium, a NIH sponsored Rare Disease Clinical Research Consortium. The purpose of the network is to integrate translational studies of the porphyrias with clinical trials testing new therapeutics.

Research Funding

  • September 30, 2009 - August 31, 2024 - Porphyrias Consortium , Co-Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: U54DK083909
  • September 1, 2020 - August 31, 2022 - Single cell resolution atlas of liver inflammation , Principle Investigator . Sponsor: Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Sponsor Award ID:

Education

Stanford University, B.A.S., 06/2000, Philosophy, Biological Sciences
University of California San Francisco, MD, 06/2007, Medicine

Honors & Awards

  • 2004-2005
    Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Training Fellowship for Medical Students
  • 2005-2006
    Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Training Fellowship for Medical Students Continued Research Support
  • 2005-2007
    Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Training Fellowship for Medical Students Continued Medical Education Support
  • 2006
    Dean’s Prize in Research, University of California San Francisco
  • 2007-2014
    Molecular Medicine Fellow, University of California San Francisco
  • 2009-2010
    Clinical Fellow Award, UCSF Gastroenterology Division
  • 2016-2021
    Career Award for Medical Scientists, Burroughs Wellcome Fund

Selected Publications

  1. Wang B, Bonkovsky HL, Lim JK, Balwani M. AGA Clinical Practice Update on Diagnosis and Management of Acute Hepatic Porphyrias: Expert Review. Gastroenterology. 2023 03; 164(3):484-491.  View on PubMed
  2. Liu J, Tran V, Vemuri VNP, Byrne A, Borja M, Kim YJ, Agarwal S, Wang R, Awayan K, Murti A, Taychameekiatchai A, Wang B, Emanuel G, He J, Haliburton J, Oliveira Pisco A, Neff NF. Concordance of MERFISH spatial transcriptomics with bulk and single-cell RNA sequencing. Life Sci Alliance. 2023 01; 6(1).  View on PubMed
  3. Balwani M, Naik H, Overbey JR, Bonkovsky HL, Bissell DM, Wang B, Phillips JD, Desnick RJ, Anderson KE. A pilot study of oral iron therapy in erythropoietic protoporphyria and X-linked protoporphyria. Mol Genet Metab Rep. 2022 Dec; 33:100939.  View on PubMed
  4. Brenner DM, Brandt LJ, Fenster M, Hamilton MJ, Kamboj AK, Oxentenko AS, Wang B, Chey WD. Rare, Overlooked, or Underappreciated Causes of Recurrent Abdominal Pain: A Primer for Gastroenterologists. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2023 02; 21(2):264-279.  View on PubMed
  5. Zhang MJ, Hou K, Dey KK, Sakaue S, Jagadeesh KA, Weinand K, Taychameekiatchai A, Rao P, Pisco AO, Zou J, Wang B, Gandal M, Raychaudhuri S, Pasaniuc B, Price AL. Polygenic enrichment distinguishes disease associations of individual cells in single-cell RNA-seq data. Nat Genet. 2022 10; 54(10):1572-1580.  View on PubMed
  6. Dickey AK, Naik H, Keel SB, Levy C, Beaven SW, Elmariah SB, Erwin AL, Goddu RJ, Hedstrom K, Leaf RK, Kazamel M, Mazepa M, Philpotts LL, Quigley J, Raef H, Rudnick SR, Saberi B, Thapar M, Ungar J, Wang B, Balwani M, Porphyrias Consortium of the Rare Diseases Clinical Research Network. Evidence-based consensus guidelines for the diagnosis and management of erythropoietic protoporphyria and X-linked protoporphyria. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2022 Aug 27.  View on PubMed
  7. Wang B, Ventura P, Takase KI, Thapar M, Cassiman D, Kubisch I, Liu S, Sweetser MT, Balwani M. Disease burden in patients with acute hepatic porphyria: experience from the phase 3 ENVISION study. Orphanet J Rare Dis. 2022 08 26; 17(1):327.  View on PubMed
  8. Song H, Bucher S, Rosenberg K, Tsui M, Burhan D, Hoffman D, Cho SJ, Rangaswami A, Breese M, Leung S, Ventura MVP, Sweet-Cordero EA, Huang FW, Nijagal A, Wang B. Single-cell analysis of hepatoblastoma identifies tumor signatures that predict chemotherapy susceptibility using patient-specific tumor spheroids. Nat Commun. 2022 08 25; 13(1):4878.  View on PubMed
  9. Tabula Sapiens Consortium*, Jones RC, Karkanias J, Krasnow MA, Pisco AO, Quake SR, Salzman J, Yosef N, Bulthaup B, Brown P, Harper W, Hemenez M, Ponnusamy R, Salehi A, Sanagavarapu BA, Spallino E, Aaron KA, Concepcion W, Gardner JM, Kelly B, Neidlinger N, Wang Z, Crasta S, Kolluru S, Morri M, Pisco AO, Tan SY, Travaglini KJ, Xu C, Alcántara-Hernández M, Almanzar N, Antony J, Beyersdorf B, Burhan D, Calcuttawala K, Carter MM, Chan CKF, Chang CA, Chang S, Colville A, Crasta S, Culver RN, Cvijovic I, D'Amato G, Ezran C, Galdos FX, Gillich A, Goodyer WR, Hang Y, Hayashi A, Houshdaran S, Huang X, Irwin JC, Jang S, Juanico JV, Kershner AM, Kim S, Kiss B, Kolluru S, Kong W, Kumar ME, Kuo AH, Leylek R, Li B, Loeb GB, Lu WJ, Mantri S, Markovic M, McAlpine PL, de Morree A, Morri M, Mrouj K, Mukherjee S, Muser T, Neuhöfer P, Nguyen TD, Perez K, Phansalkar R, Pisco AO, Puluca N, Qi Z, Rao P, Raquer-McKay H, Schaum N, Scott B, Seddighzadeh B, Segal J, Sen S, Sikandar S, Spencer SP, Steffes LC, Subramaniam VR, Swarup A, Swift M, Travaglini KJ, Van Treuren W, Trimm E, Veizades S, Vijayakumar S, Vo KC, Vorperian SK, Wang W, Weinstein HNW, Winkler J, Wu TTH, Xie J, Yung AR, Zhang Y, Detweiler AM, Mekonen H, Neff NF, Sit RV, Tan M, Yan J, Bean GR, Charu V, Forgó E, Martin BA, Ozawa MG, Silva O, Tan SY, Toland A, Vemuri VNP, Afik S, Awayan K, Botvinnik OB, Byrne A, Chen M, Dehghannasiri R, Detweiler AM, Gayoso A, Granados AA, Li Q, Mahmoudabadi G, McGeever A, de Morree A, Olivieri JE, Park M, Pisco AO, Ravikumar N, Salzman J, Stanley G, Swift M, Tan M, Tan W, Tarashansky AJ, Vanheusden R, Vorperian SK, Wang P, Wang S, Xing G, Xu C, Yosef N, Alcántara-Hernández M, Antony J, Chan CKF, Chang CA, Colville A, Crasta S, Culver R, Dethlefsen L, Ezran C, Gillich A, Hang Y, Ho PY, Irwin JC, Jang S, Kershner AM, Kong W, Kumar ME, Kuo AH, Leylek R, Liu S, Loeb GB, Lu WJ, Maltzman JS, Metzger RJ, de Morree A, Neuhöfer P, Perez K, Phansalkar R, Qi Z, Rao P, Raquer-McKay H, Sasagawa K, Scott B, Sinha R, Song H, Spencer SP, Swarup A, Swift M, Travaglini KJ, Trimm E, Veizades S, Vijayakumar S, Wang B, Wang W, Winkler J, Xie J, Yung AR, Artandi SE, Beachy PA, Clarke MF, Giudice LC, Huang FW, Huang KC, Idoyaga J, Kim SK, Krasnow M, Kuo CS, Nguyen P, Quake SR, Rando TA, Red-Horse K, Reiter J, Relman DA, Sonnenburg JL, Wang B, Wu A, Wu SM, Wyss-Coray T. The Tabula Sapiens: A multiple-organ, single-cell transcriptomic atlas of humans. Science. 2022 05 13; 376(6594):eabl4896.  View on PubMed
  10. Song H, Weinstein HNW, Allegakoen P, Wadsworth MH, Xie J, Yang H, Castro EA, Lu KL, Stohr BA, Feng FY, Carroll PR, Wang B, Cooperberg MR, Shalek AK, Huang FW. Single-cell analysis of human primary prostate cancer reveals the heterogeneity of tumor-associated epithelial cell states. Nat Commun. 2022 01 10; 13(1):141.  View on PubMed
  11. Kathiriya JJ, Wang C, Zhou M, Brumwell A, Cassandras M, Le Saux CJ, Cohen M, Alysandratos KD, Wang B, Wolters P, Matthay M, Kotton DN, Chapman HA, Peng T. Human alveolar type 2 epithelium transdifferentiates into metaplastic KRT5+ basal cells. Nat Cell Biol. 2022 01; 24(1):10-23.  View on PubMed
  12. Olivieri JE, Dehghannasiri R, Wang PL, Jang S, de Morree A, Tan SY, Ming J, Ruohao Wu A, Tabula Sapiens Consortium, Quake SR, Krasnow MA, Salzman J. RNA splicing programs define tissue compartments and cell types at single-cell resolution. Elife. 2021 09 13; 10.  View on PubMed
  13. Wang B. Novel treatment options for acute hepatic porphyrias. Curr Opin Gastroenterol. 2021 05 01; 37(3):194-199.  View on PubMed
  14. Wang B. The acute hepatic porphyrias. Transl Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2021; 6:24.  View on PubMed
  15. Liang B, Zhou Y, Qian M, Xu M, Wang J, Zhang Y, Song X, Wang H, Lin S, Ren C, Monga SP, Wang B, Evert M, Chen Y, Chen X, Huang Z, Calvisi DF, Chen X. TBX3 functions as a tumor suppressor downstream of activated CTNNB1 mutants during hepatocarcinogenesis. J Hepatol. 2021 07; 75(1):120-131.  View on PubMed
  16. Russell JP, Lim X, Santambrogio A, Yianni V, Kemkem Y, Wang B, Fish M, Haston S, Grabek A, Hallang S, Lodge EJ, Patist AL, Schedl A, Mollard P, Nusse R, Andoniadou CL. Pituitary stem cells produce paracrine WNT signals to control the expansion of their descendant progenitor cells. Elife. 2021 01 05; 10.  View on PubMed
  17. Saberi B, Naik H, Overbey JR, Erwin AL, Anderson KE, Bissell DM, Bonkovsky HL, Phillips JD, Wang B, K Singal A, M McGuire B, Desnick RJ, Balwani M. Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Acute Hepatic Porphyrias: Results from the Longitudinal Study of the U.S. Porphyrias Consortium. Hepatology. 2021 05; 73(5):1736-1746.  View on PubMed
  18. Dickey AK, Quick C, Ducamp S, Zhu Z, Feng YA, Naik H, Balwani M, Anderson KE, Lin X, Phillips JE, Rebeiz L, Bonkovsky HL, McGuire BM, Wang B, Chasman DI, Smoller JW, Fleming MD, Christiani DC. Evidence in the UK Biobank for the underdiagnosis of erythropoietic protoporphyria. Genet Med. 2021 01; 23(1):140-148.  View on PubMed
  19. Tabula Muris Consortium. A single-cell transcriptomic atlas characterizes ageing tissues in the mouse. Nature. 2020 07; 583(7817):590-595.  View on PubMed
  20. Schaum N, Lehallier B, Hahn O, Pálovics R, Hosseinzadeh S, Lee SE, Sit R, Lee DP, Losada PM, Zardeneta ME, Fehlmann T, Webber JT, McGeever A, Calcuttawala K, Zhang H, Berdnik D, Mathur V, Tan W, Zee A, Tan M, Tabula Muris Consortium, Pisco AO, Karkanias J, Neff NF, Keller A, Darmanis S, Quake SR, Wyss-Coray T. Ageing hallmarks exhibit organ-specific temporal signatures. Nature. 2020 07; 583(7817):596-602.  View on PubMed

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