Yee Ling Wu, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Microbiology & Immunology
Research Interests:
- Molecular mechanisms of antibody class switch recombination and B cell responses in health and disease.
Education
Ph.D., Ohio State University
Postdoc, MRC, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, UK
Research Interests
Molecular mechanisms of antibody class switch recombination and B cell responses in health and disease.
Research Projects:
One of our lab’s major research focuses has been on the generation and regulation of IgE in the context of allergic responses. The cellular origin and site of allergen-specific IgE production have been perplexing largely due to the paucity and the transient nature of IgE expressing cells. Our lab found that inhaled allergen induces the formation of lung-resident memory B cells (MBCs) and ectopic lymphoid tissues in the sensitized lung. Upon allergen re-encounter, lung-resident MBCs, predominantly IgG1-expressing MBCs, actively undergo class switch recombination to IgE and rapidly differentiate into IgE secreting cells in the lung, thus maintaining the allergen-specific IgE response in the airway.
Our current research focuses on the key steps that drive the formation of lung-resident MBCs and ectopic lymphoid tissues in the allergic lungs. We are actively investigating the molecular signals that drive the entry of B cell subsets into the allergic lungs, the molecular and cellular components that afford the retention and survival of lung-resident B cells and persistence of ectopic lymphoid tissues, and whether these lymphoid aggregates modulate the local antibody response and new strategies to alter these lymphoid aggregates to ameliorate local IgE response.
Publications/Research Listings
Nelson AJ, Tatematsu BK, Beach JR, Sojka DK, and Wu, YL. Lung-resident memory B cells maintain allergic IgE responses in the respiratory tract. Immunity. 2025 Apr 8;58(4):875-888.e8. PMID: 40139187.
Wu YL, Stubbington MJ, Daly M, Teichmann SA and Rada C. Intrinsic transcriptional heterogeneity in B cells controls early class switching to IgE. J. Exp Med. 2017: Jan; 214 (1): 183-196. PMID: 27994069.
Chen JY*, Wu YL*, Mok MY, Wu YJ, Lintner KE, Wang CM, Chung EK, Yang Y, Zhou B, Wang H, Yu D, Alhomosh A, Jones K, Spencer CH, Nagaraja HN, Lau YL, Lau CS and Yu CY. Effects of complement C4 gene copy-number variations, size dichotomy and C4A-deficiency on genetic risk and clinical presentation of SLE in East-Asians (*authors contributed equally). Arthritis Rheumatol 2016: Jan 27. PMID: 26814708.
Taylor BJ, Wu YL and Rada C. Active RNAP pre-initiation sites are highly mutated by cytidine deaminases in yeast, with AID targeting small RNA genes. eLife 2014: PMID: 25237741.
Taylor BJ, Nik-Zainal S, Wu YL, Stebbings LA, Raine K, Campbell PJ, Rada C, Stratton MR, Neuberger MS. Kataegic mutation showers through the action of the APOBEC family of DNA deaminases. eLife 2013: 41(2):485-90. PMID: 23599896.