Jun Wu

Jun Wu obtained his bachelor degree in Clinical Medicine from Shandong University School of Medicine, China. He earned his Ph.D. degree in Life Science from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, focusing on centrosome cycle regulation. Dr. Wu received his postdoctoral training at University of Southern California with Dr. Martin Pera and the Salk Institute with Dr. Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte. His postdoctoral work focused on stem cell biology and genome editing. In January 2018, Dr. Wu joined UT Southwestern as an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Biology.

Dr. Wu’s work has contributed to the generation of new stem cells for basic and translational studies, and developing novel and efficient genome and epigenome editing tools. He expanded the spectrum of pluripotent states by capturing several new types of pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) with distinct molecular and phenotypic features, and helped establish a 3D culture system that supports long-term expansion of nephron progenitor cells.

Recently, he has generated PSC-derived interspecies chimeras and developed an efficient and versatile interspecies blastocyst complementation system for targeted organ-enrichment of xenogeneic donor PSCs. His group is particularly interested in harnessing interspecies chimeras for studying developmental biology in an evolutionary context, body- and organ-size determination, species’ specific behavioral traits, cancer resistance, and molecular basis of species barriers.

Dr. Wu is a Virginia Murchison Linthicum Scholar in Medical Research and was one of the 2017 CPRIT Scholars in the First-Time, Tenure-Track Faculty Member program.