Xu Wu, PhD

Prof. Wu is an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School, and a principal investigator at the Cutaneous Biology Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital.

His research lies at the interface of chemistry and biology. His lab uses synthetic and medicinal chemistry methods to develop novel small molecule modulators of biological functions, aiming to 1) discover novel tools for stem cell and cancer biology; 2) pharmacologically identify and validate novel therapeutic targets; 3) discover novel signaling nodes, cross-talking and their physiological and pathological relevances.

They combine high throughput chemical screening, functional genomics and medicinal chemistry to discover new cancer targets and pharmacologically validate the new target. Specifically, they are developing small molecule modulators of Hedgehog, Wnt, and Hippo signaling, and study the differentiation and cellular senescence of various cancer cells.