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Yijen Wu, Ph.D.

  • Assistant Professor
  • Director of Rangos Research Center Animal Imaging Core

My research interest is to understand the heart-brain-placenta connection from fetal development throughout the postnatal periods, by leveraging novel multi-facet Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) methodology in pre-clinical models for translatable diagnosis, risk stratification, outcome prediction, and potential therapeutic strategy. I aim to launch sensitive imaging methodology in order (A) to understand etiology and reveal what cannot be seen, understood, or appreciated with current clinical practice by developing more sensitive advance imaging methods; (B) to facilitate early detection and diagnosis before irreversible tissue damage occurs to allow timely intervention; and (C) establish non-invasive imaging-based surrogate biomarkers for guiding therapeutic development and efficacy. 

Representative Publications

  • Wu YL. Cardiac MRI Assessment of Mouse Myocardial Infarction and Regeneration. Methods Mol Biol. 2021;2158:81-106. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-0668-1_8. PubMed PMID: 32857368.
  • Wu YL, Lo CW.  Diverse application of MRI for mouse phenotyping. Birth Defects Res. 2017 Jun 1;109(10):758-770. PubMed PMID: 28544650.
  • Kapralov AA, Yang Q, Dar HH, Tyurina YY, Anthonymuthu TS, Kim R, St Croix CM, Mikulska-Ruminska K, Liu B, Shrivastava IH, Tyurin VA, Ting HC, Wu YL, Gao Y, Shurin GV, Artyukhova MA, Ponomareva LA, Timashev PS, Domingues RM, Stoyanovsky DA, Greenberger JS, Mallampalli RK, Bahar I, Gabrilovich DI, Bayir H, Kagan VE. Redox lipid reprogramming commands susceptibility of macrophages and microglia to ferroptotic death. Nature Chem Biol. 2020;16(3):278-90. Epub 2020/02/23. doi: 10.1038/s41589-019-0462-8. PubMed PMID: 32080625.
  • Liu X, Yagi H, Saeed S, Bais AS, Gabriel GC, Chen Z, Peterson KA, Li Y, Schwartz MC, Reynolds WT, Saydmohammed M, Gibbs B, Wu Y, Devine W, Chatterjee B, Klena NT, Kostka D, de Mesy Bentley KL, Ganapathiraju MK, Dexheimer P, Leatherbury L, Khalifa O, Bhagat A, Zahid M, Pu W, Watkins S, Grossfeld P, Murray SA, Porter GA Jr, Tsang M, Martin LJ, Benson DW, Aronow BJ, Lo CW. The complex genetics of hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Nature Genet. 2017 Jul;49(7):1152- 1159. PubMed PMID:28530678.
  • Wu YL, Ye Q, Foley LM, Hitchens TK, Sato K, Williams JB, Ho C. In situ labeling of immune cells with iron oxide particles: an approach to detect organ rejection by cellular MRI. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2006 Feb 7;103(6):1852-7. PubMed PMID: 16443687; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC1413627.
  • Yeh FC, Liu L, Hitchens TK, Wu YL. Mapping immune cell infiltration using restricted diffusion MRI. Magn Reson Med. 2017 Feb;77(2):603-612. PubMed PMID: 26843524.
  • Wu Y, Pearce PS, Rapuano A, Hitchens TK, de Lanerolle NC, Pan JW. Metabolic changes in early poststatus epilepticus measured by MR spectroscopy in rats. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2015 Nov;35(11):1862-70. PubMed PMID: 26104287.
  • Wu YL, Ye Q, Eytan DF, Liu L, Rosario BL, Hitchens TK, Yeh FC, Rooijen van N, Ho C. Magnetic resonance imaging investigation of macrophages in acute cardiac allograft rejection after heart transplantation. Circulation Cardiovasc Imaging. 2013 Nov;6(6):965-73. PubMed PMID: 24097421; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3886711.
  • Wu YL, Ye Q, Ho C. Cellular and Functional Imaging of Cardiac Transplant Rejection. Curr Cardiovasc Imaging Rep. 2011 Feb 1;4(1):50-62. PubMed PMID: 21359095; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3045087.
  • Wu YL, Ye Q, Sato K, Foley LM, Hitchens TK, Ho C. Noninvasive evaluation of cardiac allograft rejection by cellular and functional cardiac magnetic resonance. JACC Cardiovasc Imaging. 2009 Jun;2(6):731-41. PubMed PMID: 19520344; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2752220.
  • Pearce PS, Wu Y, Rapuano A, Kelly KM, de Lanerolle N, Pan JW. Metabolic injury in a variable rat model of post-status epilepticus. Epilepsia. 2016 Dec;57(12):1978-1986. PubMed PMID: 27943308; PubMed Central PMCID:PMC5215597.
  • Pang D, Wu YL, Alcamo AM, Cummings J, Di Caro V, Walko T, 3rd, Hsue V, Clark RSB, Panigrahy A, Kochanek PM, Aneja RK. Early Axonal Injury and Delayed Cytotoxic Cerebral Edema are Associated With Microglial Activation in a Mouse Model of Sepsis. Shock. 2019. Epub 2019/09/13. doi: 10.1097/shk.0000000000001446. PubMed PMID: 31513049.
  • Han L, Choudhury S, Mich-Basso JD, Ammanamanchi N, Ganapathy B, Suresh S, Khaladkar M, Singh J, Maehr R, Zuppo DA, Kim J, Eberwine JH, Wyman SK, Wu YL, Kühn B. Lamin B2 Levels Regulate Polyploidization of Cardiomyocyte Nuclei and Myocardial Regeneration. Dev Cell. 2020 Apr 6;53(1):42-59.e11. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2020.01.030. Epub 2020 Feb 27. PubMed PMID: 32109383; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7346764
  • Koppes EA, Redel BK, Johnson MA, Skvorak KJ, Ghaloul-Gonzalez L, Yates ME, Lewis DW, Gollin SM, Wu YL, Christ SE, Yerle M, Leshinski A, Spate LD, Benne JA, Murphy SL, Samuel MS, Walters EM, Hansen SA, Wells KD, Lichter-Konecki U, Wagner RA, Newsome JT, Dobrowolski SF, Vockley J, Prather RS, Nicholls RD. A porcine model of phenylketonuria generated by CRISPR/Cas 9 genome editing. JCI Insight; 2020 Oct 15. PMID: 33055427; PMCID: PMC7605535 ; DOI: 10.1172/jci.insight.141523
  • Ling X, Latoche JD, Choy CJ, Kurland BF, Laymon CM, Wu Y, Salamacha N, Shen D, Geruntho JJ, Rigatti LH, Windish HP, Langton-Webster B, Berkman CE and Anderson CJ. Preclinical Dosimetry, Imaging, and Targeted Radionuclide Therapy Studies of Lu-177-Labeled Albumin-Binding, PSMA-Targeted CTT1403. Molecular Imaging and Biology. 2019. PMID:31321650. DOI: 10.1007/s11307-019-01404-8.
  • Liu H, Zhang CH, Ammanamanchi N, Suresh S, Lewarchik C, Rao K, Uys GM, Han L, Abrial M, Yimlamai D, Ganapathy B, Guillermier C, Chen N, Khaladkar M, Spaethling J, Eberwine JH, Kim J, Walsh S, Choudhury S, Little K, Francis K, Sharma M, Viegas M, Bais A, Kostka D, Ding J, Bar-Joseph Z, Wu Y, Yechoor V, Moulik M, Johnson J, Weinberg J, Reyes-Mugica M, Steinhauser ML, Kuhn B. Control of cytokinesis by beta-adrenergic receptors indicates an approach for regulating cardiomyocyte endowment. Sci Transl Med. 2019;11(513). Epub 2019/10/11. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aaw6419. PubMed PMID: 31597755.
  • Henkel M, Partyka J, Gregory AD, Forno E, Cho MH, Eddens T, Tout AR, Salamacha N, Horne W, Rao KS, Wu Y, Alcorn JF, Kostka D, Hirsch R, Celedon JC, Shapiro SD, Kolls JK, Campfield BT. Follistatin-like 1 Attenuation Causes Spontaneous Smoke-Resistant Pulmonary Emphysema. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2019. Epub 2019/12/14. doi: 10.1164/rccm.201905-0973OC. PubMed PMID: 31834999.