Yue WANG

Adjunct Professor
Yue WANG

Affiliations

Adjunct Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS.
Research Director, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, A*STAR.

Biodata

Yue Wang’s research in the past two decades has focused on the identification and characterization of factors that determine the virulence of the fungal human pathogen Candida albicans. He has made a series of ground-breaking discoveries. His lab discovered that the pathogen uses a specific iron uptake mechanism to acquire this essential nutrient for survival and causing infection in the host. He also discovered a master regulator, called Hgc1, of the yeast-hyphae transition, a major virulence trait of C. albicans. His group then identified a number of effector molecules of Hgc1 and elucidated how these molecules coordinate to construct hyphae. One of his recent seminal findings is to uncover bacterial peptidoglycan in human blood as a potent activator of the yeast-hyphal transition. He found that peptidoglycan in the blood enters C. albicans cells to activate the sole adenylate cyclase to turn on the expression of hyphae-specific genes including HGC1. His findings have significantly advanced our understanding of molecular mechanisms that govern the virulence and pathogenicity of this major microbial pathogen and identified potential targets for the development of diagnostic and therapeutic tools for combating this terrible human disease. For his multiple ground breaking discoveries in the study of the virulence factors and basic biology of the human fungal pathogen C. albicans, Dr Wang was awarded the President’s Science Award 2012.

Education

Degree and Institution Year(s)
University of Minnesota, USA 1982-1987
Peking University, Beijing, China 1982

Professional Experience

Position and Institute Year(s)
Research director, Institute of Molecular & Cell Biology, A*star, Singapore 2000-Present
Adjunct Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS 2011-Present
Principal investigator, Institute of Molecular & Cell Biology, A*star, Singapore 1993-1999

Research Interest

Yue WANG’s laboratory focuses on:

  1. Investigation of virulence determinants in the fungal human pathogen C. albicans
  2. Use of the dimorphism of C. albicans to study molecular mechanisms underlying cell polarity control.
  3. Study of host factors that promote or inhibit C. albicans infection.
  4. Development of diagnostic and therapeutic tools targeting C. albicans.

Selected Publications

  1. Y Wang and CJ Pallen (1991). The human receptor-like protein tyrosine phosphatase HPTPα has two active domains with distinct substrate specificity. EMBO J. 10:3231-3237.
  2. XM Zheng, Y Wang and CJ Pallen (1992). Cell transformation and activation of pp60c-src by overexpression of a protein tyrosine phosphatase. Nature 359:336-338.
  3. R Narendrakumar and Y Wang (2000). A high affinity iron permease essential for Candida albicans virulence. Science 288:1062-1064.
  4. XD Zhang, YM Wang and Y Wang (2004). Hgc1, a novel hypha-specific G1 cyclin-related protein regulates Candida albicans hyphal morphogenesis. EMBO J. 23:1845-1856.
  5. XD Zheng, RTH Lee, YM Wang, QS Lin and Y Wang (2007). Phosphorylation of Rga2, a Cdc42 GAP, by CDK/Hgc1 is crucial for Candida albicans hyphal growth. EMBO J. 26: 3760-3769.
  6. I Sinha, YM Wang, R Philp, CR Li, WH Yap and Y Wang (2007). Cyclin-dependent kinases control septin phosphorylation in Candida albicans hyphal development. Dev. Cell. 13:421-432.
  7. XL Xu, RTH Lee, HM Fang, YM Wang, R Li, H Zou, Y Zhu and Y Wang. (2008). Bacterial peptidoglycan triggers Candida albicans hyphal growth by directly activating the adenylyl cyclase Cyr1p. Cell Host & Microbe 4:28-39.
  8. CR Li, YM Wang, and Y Wang (2008). The IQGAP Iqg1 is a regulatory target of CDK for cytokinesis in Candida albicans. EMBO J. 27: 2998–3010.
  9. GS Zeng, YM Wang, and Y Wang (2012). Cdc28-Cln3 regulates actin-mediated endocytosis by targeting Sla1 in different modes of fungal growth. Mol. Biol. Cell 23: 3485-3497.
  10. MA Hickman, G Zeng, A Forche, MP Hirakawa, D Abbey, BD Harrison, YM Wang, CH Su, RJ Bennett, Y Wang, J Berman (2013). The ‘obligate diploid’ Candida albicans forms mating-competent haploids. Nature 494: 55-59.
  11. Y Wang (2013). Fungal adenylyl cyclase acts as a signal sensor and integrator and plays a central role in interaction with bacteria. Plos Pathog. 9(10): e1003612.
  12. ZX Huang, P Zhao, GS Zeng, YM Wang, I Sudbery, P Sudbery, and Y Wang (2013). Nap1 regulates the septin ring dynamics and morphogenesis in Candida albicans. mBio 5(1): e00915-13.
  13. GS Zeng, YM Wang, FY Chang, and Y Wang (2014). One-step targeted gene deletion in Candida albicans haploids. Nature Protocols 9: 464-73.
  14. JX Gao, HT Wang, AHH Wong, GS Zeng, ZX Huang, YM Wang, JL Sang, and Yue Wang (2014). Regulation of Rfa2 phosphorylation in response to genotoxic stress in Candida albicans. Mol. Micriobiol. 94: 141-55.
  15. J Greig, I Sudbery, J Richardson, J Naglik, Y Wang* and P Sudbery (2015). Cell cycle-independent phospho-regulation of Fkh2 during hyphal growth regulates pathogenic mechanisms in Candida albicans. *Corresponding authors. PLoS Pathog. (In press).
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