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College of Pharmacy

College of Pharmacy

Faculty Profile

mingfu-wu-new.jpgMingfu Wu

Associate Professor of Pharmacology
Department of Pharmacological and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Office: 
University of Houston College of Pharmacy
Health 2, Room 5014
4349 Martin Luther King Boulevard
Houston, TX 77204-5037

Contact: mwu25@central.uh.edu - 713-743-9880

Research:

1. My lab aims to determine the etiology and then the treatment for the left ventricular non-compaction cardiomyopathy. 2. Another project will determine how epicardial development regulates cardiac morphogenesis and explore methods to treat congenital heart defects caused by abnormal epicardial development. 3. We are also screening chemicals that promote cardiomyocyte maturation during cell-reprogramming and cardiomyocyte proliferation during cardiac regeneration.

  • Postdoc 2007-2010, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas
  • Postdoc 2006-2007, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
  • Ph.D. in Biology, 2005, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas

Google Scholar Profile
  • Lianjie Miao, Yangyang Lu, Anika Nusrat, Guizhen Fan, Shaohua Zhang, Luqi Zhao, Chia-Ling Wu, Hongyan Guo, Trang Le Nu Huyen, Yi Zheng, Zhen-Chuan Fan, Weinian Shou, Robert J Schwartz, Yu Liu, Ashok Kumar, Haixin Sui, Irina I Serysheva, Alan R Burns, Leo Q. Wan, Bin Zhou, Sylvia M. Evans, and Mingfu Wu*. Tunneling Nanotube-Like structures regulate distant cellular interactions during heart formation. Science. 2025;387:eadd3417. doi: 10.1126/science.add3417
  • Lianjie Miao, Yangyang Lu, Anika Nusrat, Luqi Zhao, Micah Castillo, Yongqi Xiao, Hongyang Guo, Yu Liu, Preethi Gunaratne, Robert, J Schwartz, Alan R Burns, Ashok Kumar, C. Michael DiPersio, and Mingfu Wu*. β1 integrins regulate cellular behaviors and cardiomyocyte organization during ventricular wall formation. Cardiovascular Research (2024) 00, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvae111 
  • Joshi AS, Tomaz da Silva M, Roy A, Koike TE, Wu M, CastilloMB, Gunaratne PH, Liu Y, Iwawaki T, and Kumar A (2024) TheIRE1α/XBP1 signaling axis drives myoblast fusion in adultskeletal muscle. EMBO Reports, 25:3627-365
  • Sun B, Rouzbehani OMT, Kramer RJ, Ghosh R, Perelli RM, Atkins S, Fatahian AN, Davis K, Szulik MW, Goodman MA, Hathaway MA, Chi E, Word TA, Tunuguntla H, Denfield SW, Wehrens XHT, Whitehead KJ, Abdelnasser HY, Warren JS, Wu M, Franklin S, Boudina S, Landstrom AP. Nonsense Variant PRDM16-Q187X Causes Impaired Myocardial Development and TGF-β Signaling Resulting in Noncompaction Cardiomyopathy in Humans and Mice. Circ Heart Fail. 2023 Dec;16(12):e010351. doi: 10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.122.010351. Epub 2023 Dec. 19th. PubMed PMID: 38113297.
  • Datta S, Cao W, Skillman M, Wu M. Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome: Signaling & Molecular Perspectives, and the Road Ahead. Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Oct 17;24(20). doi: 10.3390/ijms242015249. Review. PubMed PMID: 37894928; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC10607600.
  • Anirban Roy, Tatiana Koike, Aniket Joshi, Meiricris Tomaz Da Silva, Kavya Mathukumalli, Mingfu Wu and Ashok Kumar, Temporal regulation of TAK1 to counteract muscular dystrophy. JCI Insight. 2023 May 22;8(10). doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.164768. PubMed PMID: 37071470; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC10322678.
  • Qing Li†, Lianjie Miao†, Lihong Xia†, Hala Y. Abdelnasser, Fang Zhang, Yangyang Lu, Anika Nusrat, Mantasha Tabassum, Juxiang Li* and Mingfu Wu*. Left Ventricular Noncompaction Is Associated with Valvular Regurgitation and a Variety of Arrhythmias. J Cardiovasc Dev Dis. 2022 Feb 2;9(2):49. doi: 10.3390/jcdd9020049
  • Lianjie Miao, Yangyang Lu, Anika Nusrat, Hala Y. Abdelnasser, Sayantap Datta, Bin Zhou, Robert J. Schwartz and Mingfu Wu*. The Spatiotemporal Expression of Notch1 and Numb and Their Functional Interaction during Cardiac Morphogenesis. Cells. 2021 Aug 25;10(9):2192. doi: 10.3390/cells10092192. PMID: 34571841
  • Liu YX, Xue B, Sun WY, Wingfield JL, Sun J, Wu M, Lechtreck KF, Wu Z, Fan ZC. Bardet-Biedl Syndrome 3 protein promotes ciliary exit of the signaling protein phospholipase D via the BBSome. Elife. 2021 Feb 15;10. doi: 10.7554/eLife.59119. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 33587040.
  • Li Y, Lv Z, Zhang S, Wang Z, He L, Tang M, Pu W, Zhao H, Zhang Z, Shi Q, Cai D, Wu M, Hu G, Lui KO, Feng J, Nieto MA, Zhou B. Genetic Fate Mapping of Transient Cell Fate Reveals N-Cadherin Activity and Function in Tumor Metastasis. Dev Cell. 2020 Sep 14;54(5):593-607.e5. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2020.06.021. Epub 2020 Jul 14. PubMed PMID: 32668208
  • Xue B, Liu YX, Dong B, Wingfield JL, Wu M, Sun J, Lechtreck KF, Fan ZC. Intraflagellar transport protein RABL5/IFT22 recruits the BBSome to the basal body through the GTPase ARL6/BBS3. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A.2020 Feb 4;117(5):2496-2505. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1901665117. Epub 2020 Jan 17. PubMed PMID: 31953262; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7007519.
  • Lianjie Miao, Jingjing Li, Jian Li, Yangyang Lu, David Shieh, Joseph E. Mazurkiewicz, Margarida Barroso, John J. Schwarz, Hongbo Xin, Harold A. Singer, Peter Vincent, Weimin Zhong, Glenn L. Radice, Leo Q Wan, Zhen-Chuan Fan, Guoying Huang, and Mingfu Wu*. Cardiomyocyte orientation modulated by the Numb Family Proteins-N-Cadherin axis is essential for ventricular wall morphogenesis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2019 Jul 30;116(31):15560-15569. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1904684116. Epub 2019 Jul 12. PubMed PMID: 31300538.
  • Ray P, Chin AS, Worley KE, Fan J, Kaur G, Wu M, Wan LQ. Intrinsic cellular chirality regulates left-right symmetry breaking during cardiac looping. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2018 Dec 11;115(50):E11568-E11577. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1808052115. Epub 2018 Nov 20. PubMed PMID: 30459275; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6294912.
  • M. Wu. Mechanisms of Trabecular Formation and Specification During Cardiogenesis. Pediatric Cardiology, 2018, 2018 Mar 28. doi: 10.1007/s00246-018-1868-x (Invited Review).
  • Lianjie Miao, Jingjing Li, Jun Li, Xueying Tian, Yangyang Lu, Saiyang Hu, David Shieh, Ryan Kanai, Bo-yang Zhou, Bin Zhou, Jiandong Liu, Anthony B. Firulli, James F. Martin, Harold Singer, Bin Zhou, Hongbo Xin* & Mingfu Wu* Notch signaling regulates Hey2 expression in a spatiotemporal dependent manner during cardiac morphogenesis and trabecular specification. Scientific Reports. 2018 Feb 8;8(1):2678. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-20917-w.

Journal & Media Coverage of Research

Science Perspective (3-13-25): https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adw1567

Nature Review Cardiology highlight (4-2-25): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41569-025-01151-0

UH News Release (3-17-25): https://uh.edu/news-events/stories/2025/march/03172025-heart-formation-layers-wu.php

Science Daily (6-10-24): https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/06/240610140204.htm

Mirage News (6-10-24): https://www.miragenews.com/discovery-unlocks-secret-to-fetal-heart-1252703/

UH News Release (6-10-24): https://uh.edu/news-events/stories/2024/june/06102024-mingfu-wu-heart-developing-spongy-disease.php

MSN (6-10-24): https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/discovery-unveils-key-to-heart-development-in-womb-unravels-cause-of-spongy-heart-disease/ar-BB1nXQkR

Awards & Honors

Research Support

  • 1R01HL172834-01 (PI, WU) NIH/NHLBI, 04/01/2024 - 03/31/2028
    Mechanisms of signaling interaction between endocardium and myocardium
    This project will determine how a microstructure called signaling bridge linking myocardium and endocardium regulates the signaling interaction between myocardium and endocardium.
  • 25EIA1422015 (PI: Wu) AHA, 04/01/2025-03/30/2030
    Long-distant cellular interaction regulates cardiac morphogenesis
    The major goals of this project are to determine the roles of tunneling nanotube on disease progression and therapeutic targeting.
  • 24TPA1303770 (PI: Wu) AHA, 07/01/2024-06/30/2027
    Determine the genetic and cellular basis of hypoplastic left heart syndrome
    The major goals of this project are to determine pathogenesis of hypoplastic left heart syndrome at the cellular and molecular level. Specifically, we will determine how the mutation of Myrf will cause hypoplastic left heart syndrome.
  • 2R01HL121700-06A1 (PI, WU) NIH/NHLBI, 06/01/2020 - 05/31/2025
    Signaling by β1 integrins regulates ventricular wall morphogenesis and compaction
    This project will determine how β1 integrins mediated ventricular contraction regulates trabecular formation and ventricular compaction.
  • 20TPA35490051 (PI, Wu) American Heart Association, 01/01/2021-12/31/2023)
    Integrin alpha 6 regulates trabecular specification and trabecular compaction
    The major goals of this project are to determine how the trabecular zone is specified, how integrin alpha 6 is involved in the trabecular specification and compaction, and what are the downstream targets of integrin alpha 6 during the trabecular specification and compaction.
  • 1 R01 HL148104-01A1 (PI: Wan) (CO-I: Wu) NIH/NHLBI/NICH, 05/01/2021 – 04/30/2025
    Understanding Cardiac C-Looping Using Microscale In Vitro Models
    The major goals of this project are to define the role of protein kinase C in determining cell chirality and to reveal biomechanical and biomolecular mechanism of cardiac asymmetric looping with engineering tools and animal models.

New Funding by Trainees

  • 24SCEFIA1248800 (PI: Miao) (Sponsor: Wu) AHA 04/01/2024-03/31/2027
    Epicardial cell multipotency and homogeneity during development and regeneration
    The major goal of this project is to determine the multipotency and homogeneity during development and regeneration.
  • 23PRE1025768 (PI: Nusrat) (Sponsor: Wu) AHA 01/01/2023-12/31/2024
    NFPs Regulate Cardiac Fibroblasts Differentiation During Development and Fibrosis in Aging and Injured Hearts
    The major goal of this project is to determine the functions of NFP in cardiac fibrosis.
  • 25PRE1378967 (PI: Guo) (Sponsor: Wu) AHA 01/01/2025-12/31/2026
    NFPs regulate trabecular specification and compaction
    The major goal of this project is to determine the functions of NFP in trabecular specification and compaction during embryonic development.

Awards & Honors

  • Established Investigator Award from AHA, 2025-2030
  • Transformational Project Award from AHA, 2024-2027
  • Transformational Project Award from AHA, 2020-2023
  • R01 NIH Young Investigator Award, Nov. 2014-Nov. 2019
  • AHA SDG award, 2013-2017
  • Travel Awards for Weinstein Conference, 2013
  • AHA postdoctoral fellowship, 2009-2010
  • Travel awards from SDB annual meeting, 2010
  • Star Postdoctoral Fellow at UTSW, 2009
  • Travel awards from UTSW