- Acquired Cross-resistance in Small Cell Lung Cancer due to Extrachromosomal DNA Amplification of MYC paralogs. Cancer discovery, 2024. 🔗 PMC link
- Extrachromosomal DNA in the cancerous transformation of Barrett’s oesophagus. Nature, 2023. 🔗 PMC link
- The Evolutionary Dynamics of Extrachromosomal DNA in Human Cancers. Nature genetics, 2022. 🔗 PMC link
- Extrachromosomal DNA: An Emerging Hallmark in Human Cancer. Annual Review of Pathology: Mechanisms of Disease, 2022. 🔗 PMC link
- ecDNA Hubs Drive Cooperative Intermolecular Oncogene Expression. Nature, 2021. 🔗 PMC link
- Extrachromosomal DNA Is Associated with Oncogene Amplification and Poor Outcome across Multiple Cancers. Nature Genetics, 2020. 🔗 PMC link
- Circular ecDNA Promotes Accessible Chromatin and High Oncogene Expression. Nature, 2019. 🔗 PMC link
Assistant Professor, CPRIT Scholar, Forbeck Scholar, Principal Investigator | ORCID, Google Scholar, Twitter
Department: Children's Medical Center Research Institute | Pediatrics | Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center
Graduate program: Cancer Biology | Genetics, Development and Disease
I am interested in and have an extensive background in cancer genetics and genomics. After graduating from Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU) majored in Biotechnology, I obtained my Ph.D. training at SYSU, where I studied genetic alterations in brain tumor. I then initiated my postdoctoral research at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, UC San Diego, and Stanford University, under Dr. Paul Mischel's mentorship, and studied the structure and function of ecDNA in cancer, revealing its circular shape and the functional impact of its unique physical conformation. In 2021, I was awarded by the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas and joined the faculty of Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern as an assistant professor in pediatrics. I am enthusiastic about studying the molecular function and molecular basis of ecDNA, and trying to leverage this knowledge to develop effective approaches to eliminate ecDNA in cancer as novel oncogene targeting strategies.
Assistant Professor | ORCID
Dr. Yoon Jung Kim obtained her Ph.D. from Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in 2007, where she developed a pH shock method to enhance the production of antibiotic and anticancer agents by studying gene regulation in Streptomyces sp. She then started her postdoctoral research at the Yale School of Medicine in 2008, under Dr. Tae-Hoon Kim’s mentorship to study the roles of chromatin structure, enhancer function, and CTCF function in gene regulation. She joined Dr. Jian Xu’s lab in the Children’s Research Institute at UT Southwestern Medical Center in 2019 as a research scientist and developed a tool (LAMPS) to examine how phase separated condensates modulate transcription at the endogenous locus. Additionally, she studied the role of hematopoietic cell-specific enhancers in governing cell lineage. In 2023, she joined Sihan Wu’s lab to study ecDNA biology, focusing on the mitotic segregation mechanism of ecDNA. In addition, she also serves as the Manager of the next-gen sequencing core. Outside of work, she loves to cook and enjoy food. She also loves to workout, run, and do Pilates and Yoga.
Stanley received his bachelor's degree in Life Sciences with a specialization in Molecular and Cell Biology from the National University of Singapore. Before joining CRI, he worked as a research assistant in Dr. David Virshup's lab at Duke-NUS Medical School, focusing on studying Wnt signaling regulated pathways in cancer. At CRI, he is a graduate student in the Wu lab. Outside of work, Stanley enjoys exploring new places and is proficient in the Japanese language.
Grad student | ORCID
Yipeng got his bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from Wuhan University (WHU), China. He has a broad interest in transcription regulation. Before he started his Ph.D. training, he worked as an undergrad research assistant with Dr.Yi Liu at UTSW, focusing on codon usage bias. He joined the Wu lab in 2023 as a graduate student, where he studies the mechanisms of ecDNA segregation and how it may be targeted for cancer therapy. Outside of work, he enjoys traveling around different countries and watching suspense movies.
Postdoc | ORCID
Dr. Kailiang Qiao earned his Ph.D. from Nankai University in 2021, where he focused on studying the molecular mechanisms of cancer progression in hepatocellular carcinoma. During his Ph.D. training, he was very interested in genomics instability and systems biology. Therefore, he joined Wu lab in 2022, where he currently studies ecDNA and the mechanism of genomic instability in cancer.
Postdoc | ORCID
Dr. Xiaohui Sun obtained his Ph.D. from Peking Union Medical College (PUMC) in 2020. Before joining CRI, he focused on studying the mechanisms of DNA damage response and repair. He paid particular attention to DNA double-strand breaks induced by ionizing radiation and studied the relationship between DNA damage response and radiosensitivity. Dr. Sun joined the Wu lab as a postdoctoral researcher at UT Southwestern in 2022. Here, he is trying to understand how extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) responses to damage and how this mechanism may be leveraged to treat ecDNA-driven cancers.In his spare time, he likes singing and biking.
Postdoc (co-mentored by Dr. Zhijian 'James' Chen) | ORCID
Dr. Qing-Lin Yang obtained his Ph.D. degree from the Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science (CEMCS, formerly known as Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, SIBCB), Chinese Academy of Sciences, in 2020. During his Ph.D. training, he focused on dissecting the mechanism of DNA demethylation and developing CRISPR-based gene editing tools. In 2023, he joined the Zhijian “James” Chen lab at the Molecular Biology department, co-mentored by Sihan Wu at CRI. Here, he studies the mechanism by which ecDNA-driven cancer evades immune surveillance.
Research Associate / Lab Manager | ORCID
Collin received his bachelor's degree in Biology from the University of Texas at Dallas. Before joining CRI, he worked as a research technician for three years in Dr. Ganesh Raj’s lab at UT Southwestern studying the DNA damage repair pathway in prostate cancer and its therapeutic targets. At CRI, he is a research assistant and lab manager for the Wu lab. Outside of work, he enjoys going to concerts, traveling, and trying different restaurants.
| Title | Agency | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Catalyst Award | American Cancer Society | 2025-2025 |
| Gilead Sciences Research Scholoar Program in Solid Tumor | Gilead Sciences | 2023-2025 |
| Recruitment of First-Time Tenure-Track Faculty Members | Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas | 2021-2026 |
| Cancer Grand Challenges | Cancer Research UK & National Cancer Institute | 2022-2027 |
| Title | Agency | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Moody Medical Research Institute Innovation Award | Moody Medical Research Institute | 2022-2024 |
A collection of haring bioinformatic scripts developed by Sihan Wu lab.
