Mingfu Wu

College Welcomes NIH-funded Cardiology Pharmacology Researcher to Faculty

October 15 — UH College of Pharmacy recently welcomed cardiology pharmacology researcher Mingfu Wu, Ph.D., to the faculty as an associate professor in the Department of Pharmacological & Pharmaceutical Sciences. 

Wu joins UHCOP from Albany Medical College in Albany, N.Y., where he served in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology (Center of Cardiovascular Science) since 2011. After earning his Ph.D. in biology from Kansas State University, Wu completed postdoctoral training at Duke University in Durham, N.C., and UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. 

With a primary research interest in the etiology and treatment of the left ventricular non-compaction cardiomyopathy and congenital heart defects, Wu recently was awarded a five-year, $1.75 million renewal grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute for his project, "Signaling by β1 integrins regulates ventricular wall morphogenesis and compaction."

Wu's lab is exploring the molecular mechanisms of the genetic disorder LVNC, which occurs when the sheet-like muscle fibers that extend into the lower left chamber of the developing heart (called trabeculations) fail to compact into normal, solid heart muscle. Occurring with or without symptoms, LVNC can be fatal in the developing fetus and cause heart failure and arrhythmia. First diagnosed in the early 1980s, LVNC remains a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge for researchers and clinicians.

Wu is currently wrapping up work on his previous five-year NHBLI project funded at $1.975 million, "Numb Family Proteins Regulate Trabecular Development." He also serves as mentor for a American Heart Association-funded postdoctoral fellow Lianjie Miao, Ph.D. 

Wu has authored/coauthored research papers published in such peer-reviewed journals as Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), Developmental Cell, Cell Reports, and Nature Scientific Reports, and presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions, Weinstein Cardiovascular Development Conference and Basic Cardiovascular Sciences (BCVS).