Professional Experience
Professor with tenure, School of Life Sciences, Peking University; Beijing, China - 2019-Present
Investigator of Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Genomics (ICG), Peking University; Beijing, China - 2016-Present
Investigator of Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Peking University; Beijing, China - 2015-Present
Investigator of Biomedical Institute for Pioneering Investigation via Convergence (BIOPIC), Peking University; Beijing, China - 2014-Present
Investigator of School of Life Sciences, Peking University; Beijing, China - 2007-Present
Research Associate, Stanford University School of Medicine; Stanford, CA, USA - 2005-2007
Postdoctoral fellow, Stanford University School of Medicine; Stanford, CA, USA - 1999-2004
Honors and Awards
Beijing Advanced Worker, 2020
Changju Project Entrepreneurial Talents, 2020
Award for Significant Advances in Medicine in China, 2019
Special Contribution Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship of Overseas Returnee in Beijing, 2019
BI Investigatorship Award, 2019
Weiming Outstanding Research Award of the Year 2018 in the School of Life Sciences of Peking
University, 2019
Peking University Award for Advanced Individual in Industry-University-Research Project, 2019
Beijing Science & Technology Award, 2018
China Ministry of Science and Technology Innovation Talent Promotion Plan: Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 2018
Peking University Teaching Award, 2018
China Patent Award, 2016
Tan Jiazhen Life Science Award, 2016
Scientific Chinese Man of the Year, 2015
Zheng Changxue Teaching Award, 2015
Bayer Investigator Award, 2014
Roche Chinese Young Investigator Award, 2014
Peking University Dongbao Fellowship, 2012
Most popular teacher of School of Life Sciences, 2010
Editorial Activities
Section Editor (Genome Editing and New Technology) for SCIENCE CHINA Life Sciences
Research Interests:
1. Gene editing and gene therapy
2. Novel therapeutics & vaccination based on circular RNAs
3. High-throughput functional genomics
4. Molecular mechanisms underlying human diseases
1. Qu L, Yi Z, Shen Y, Lin L, Chen F, Xu Y, Wu Z, Tang H, Zhang X, Tian F, Wang C, Xiao X, Dong X, Guo L, Lu S, Yang C, Tang C, Yang Y, Yu W, Wang J, Zhou Y, Huang Q, Yisimayi A, Liu S, Huang W, Cao Y, Wang Y, Zhou Z, Peng X, Wang J-W, Xie X, and Wei W*. (2022) Circular RNA Vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 and Emerging Variants. Cell (in press).
2. Liu Y, Ding B, Zheng L, Xu P, Liu Z, Chen Z, Wu P, Zhao Y, Pan Q, Guo Y, Wang W*, and Wei W*. (2022) Regulatory elements can be essential for maintaining broad chromatin organization and cell viability. Nucleic Acids Research (in press).
3. Li G, Li X, Zhuang S, Wang L, Zhu Y, Chen Y, Sun W, Wu Z, Zhou Z, Chen J*, Huang X*, Wang J*, Li D*, Li W*, Wang H*, and Wei W*. (2022). Gene editing and its applications in biomedicine. Sci China Life Sci 65, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-021-2057-0.
4. Yi Z, Qu L, Tang H, Liu Z, Liu Y, Tian F, Wang C, Zhang X, Feng Z, Yu Y, Yuan P, Yi Z, Zhao Y, and Wei W*. (2022) Engineered circular ADAR-recruiting RNAs increase the efficiency and fidelity of RNA editing in vitro and in vivo. Nat Biotechnol doi: 10.1038/s41587-021-01180-3.
5. Ding B, Liu Y, Liu Z, Zheng L, Xu P, Chen Z, Wu P, Zhao Y, Pan Q, Guo Y, Wei W*, and Wang W*. (2021) Non-coding loci without epigenomic signals can be essential for maintaining global chromatin organization and cell viability. Sci. Adv. 7(45), doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abi6020.
6. Zhou Z*, Zhang X, Lei X, Xiao X, Jiao T, Ma R, Dong X, Jiang Q, Wang W, Shi Y, Zheng T, Rao J, Xiang Z, Ren L, Deng T, Jiang Z, Dou Z, Wei W* and Wang J*. (2021) Sensing of cytoplasmic chromatin by cGAS activates innate immune response in SARS-CoV-2 infection. Sig Transduct Target Ther 6, 382. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41392-021-00800-3.
7. Zhu SY, Liu Y, Zhou Z., Xiao X, Liu ZH, Chen A, Dong XJ, Tian F, Chen SH, Xu YY, Wang CH, Li QH, Niu XR, Pan Q, Du S, Xiao JY*, Wang JW* and Wei W*. (2021). Genome-wide CRISPR activation screen identifies candidate receptors for SARS-CoV-2 entry. Sci China Life Sci. doi: 10.1007/s11427-021-1990-5.
8. Guo, S., Chen, Y., Liu, J., Zhang, X., Liu, Z., Zhou, Z., and Wei, W*. (2021). Low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1 is a CROPs-associated receptor for Clostridioides difficile toxin B. Sci China Life Sci. doi: 10.1007/s11427-021-1943-9.
9. Xu, P., Liu, Z., Liu, Y., Ma, H., Xu, Y., Bao, Y., Zhu, S., Cao, Z., Wu, Z., Zhou, Z., and Wei, W*. (2021). Genome-wide interrogation of gene functions through base editor screens empowered by barcoded sgRNAs. Nat Biotechnol. 39(11): 1403-1413.
10. Liang YS, Zhang G*, Li QH, Han L, Hu XY, Guo Y, Tao WY, Zhao XM, Guo MZ, Gan TY, Tong YM, Xu YF, Zhou Z, Ding Q, Wei W*, and Zhong J*. (2021) TRIM26 is a critical host factor for HCV replication and determines host tropism. Sci. Adv. 7(2), doi:10.1126/sciadv.abd9732.
11. Liu Y, Liu Z, Cao Z, and Wei W*. (2020) Reply to: Fitness effects of CRISPR/Cas9-targeting of long noncoding RNA genes. Nat Biotechnol. 38(5): 577-578.
12. Liu L, Zhang Y, Liu M, Wei W, Yi C, and Peng J*. (2019) Structural insights into the specific recognition of 5-methylcytosine and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine by TAL effectors. Journal of Molecular Biology https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmb.2019.11.023.
13. Zhang X, Yue D, Wang Y, Zhou Y, Liu Y, Qiu Y, Tian F, Yu Y, Zhou Z, and Wei W*. (2019) PASTMUS: mapping functional elements at single amino acid resolution in human cells. Genome Biology DOI: 10.1186/s13059-019-1897-7.
14. Qu L, Yi Z, Zhu S, Wang C, Cao Z, Zhou Z, Yuan P, Yu Y, Tian F, Liu Z, Bao Y, Zhao Y, Wei W*. (2019) Programmable RNA editing by recruiting endogenous ADAR using engineered RNAs. Nat. Biotechnol. 37, 1059-1069.
15. X. Zhao, G. Zhang, X. Chen, L. Dai, X. Qu, S. Li, S. Liu, H. Song, Z. Gao, P. Yuan, Z. Liu, C. Li, Z. Shang, Y. Li, M. Zhang, J. Qi, H. Wang, N. Du, Y. Wu, Y. Bi, S. Gao, Y. Shi, J. Yan, Y. Zhang, Z. Xie*, W. Wei* and G. F. Gao*. (2019) Human Neonatal Fc Receptor Is the Cellular Uncoating Receptor for Enterovirus B. Cell 177, 1553-1565.
16. Zhu S, Cao Z, Liu Z, He Y, Wang Y, Yuan P, Li W, Wei W*. (2019) Guide RNAs with embedded barcodes boost CRISPR-pooled screens. Genome Biol 20, 20, doi:10.1186/s13059-019-1628-0.
17. Liu Y, Cao Z, Wang Y, Guo Y, Xu P, Yuan P, Liu Z, He Y, and Wei W*. (2018) Genome-wide screening for functional long noncoding RNAs in human cells by Cas9 targeting of splice sites. Nat Biotechnol 36, 1203-1210.
18. Zhang H, Zhou Y, Wang Y, Zhao Y, Qiu Y, Zhang X, Yue D, Zhou Z, and Wei W*. (2018). A surrogate reporter system for multiplexable evaluation of CRISPR/Cas9 in targeted mutagenesis. Sci Rep 8, 1042.
19. Zhang Y, Liu L, Guo S, Song J, Zhu C, Yue Z, Wei W* and Yi C*. (2017) Deciphering TAL effectors for 5-methylcytosine and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine recognition. Nat Commun 8(1): 901.
20. He R, Peng J, Yuan P, Yang J, Wu X, Wang Y and Wei W*. (2017). Glucosyltransferase Activity of Clostridium difficile Toxin B Triggers Autophagy-mediated Cell Growth Arrest. Sci Rep 7(1): 10532.
21. Zhou Y, Wang P, Tian F, Gao G, Huang L*, Wei W* and Xie X.S* (2017) Painting A Specific Chromosome with CRISPR/Cas9 for Live-cell Imaging. Cell Res. 27, 298-301.
22. Hu H, Zhang H, Wang S, Ding M, An H, Hou Y, Yang X, Wei W*, Sun Y*, Tang C*. (2017) Live visualization of genomic loci with BiFC-TALE. Sci. Rep. 7, 40192.
23. Zhou Y, Zhang H and Wei W*. (2016) Simultaneous generation of multi-gene knockouts in human cells. FEBS Letters 590, 4343-4353.
24. Zhu S, Li W, Liu J, Chen C-H, Liao Q, Xu P, Xu H, Xiao T, Cao Z, Peng J, Yuan P, Brown M, Liu X* & Wei W*. (2016) Genome-scale deletion screening of human long non-coding RNAs using a paired-guide RNA CRISPR library. Nat Biotechnol 34, 1279-1286.
25. Peng J, Zhou Y, Zhu S and Wei W*. (2015) High-throughput Screens in Mammalian Cells Using the CRISPR-Cas9 System. FEBS Journal 282, 2089–2096.
26. He R, Peng J, Yuan P, Xu F, Wei W*. (2015) Divergent roles of BECN1 in LC3 lipidation and autophagosomal function. Autophagy 11:5, 740-747.
27. Ren Q, Li C, Yuan P, Cai C, Luo G, Zhang L and Wei W*. (2015) A Dual-Reporter System for Real-Time Monitoring and High-throughput CRISPR/Cas9 Library Screening of the Hepatitis C Virus. Sci. Rep. 5, 8865.
28. Yuan P, Zhang H, Cai C, Zhu S, Zhou Y, Yang X, He R, Li C, Guo S, Li S, Huang T, Feng H and Wei W*. (2015) Chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan 4 functions as the cellular receptor for Clostridium difficile toxin B. Cell Res. 25:157-168.
29. Zhou Y, Zhu S, Cai C, Yuan P, Li C, Huang Y and Wei W*. (2014) High-throughput Screening of a CRISPR/Cas Library for Functional Genomics in Human Cells. Nature 509: 487-91.
30. Qian LL, Cai CZ, Yuan PF, Jeong SY, Yang XZ, Almeida VD, Ernst J, Costa M, Cohen SN, Wei WS*. (2014) Bidirectional effect of Wnt signaling antagonist DKK1 on the modulation of anthrax toxin uptake. Sci China Life Sci 57: 469–481.
31. Yang J, Zhang Y, Yuan P, Cai C, Ren Q, Guo S, Zhu C, Qi H and Wei W*. (2014) Complete Decoding of DNA Recognition by TAL Effector RVDs. Cell Res. 24:628-631.
The
research is mainly focused on the development of eukaryotic gene editing tools, with the emphasis on the high-throughput functional genomics and gene therapy. The combination of forward and reverse genetic means are employed, often in a high-throughput fashion, for the understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying human diseases, including cancer and infection
