Lang Wu, PhD
lwu3@lsuhsc.edu
Professor
Associate Director of Population Science, LSU-LCMC Health Cancer Center
Co-Director, Population Sciences and Cancer Control Program, LSU-LCMC Health Cancer
Center
Dr. Lang Wu is a Professor in the Department of Interdisciplinary Oncology, Associate Director of Population Science at the LSU-LCMC Health Cancer Center, and Co-Director of its Population Sciences and Cancer Control Program. He received his PhD degree in Clinical and Translational Science from Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and conducted postdoctoral training at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Prior to joining LSUHSC, he was a tenured Associate Professor at University of Hawaii Cancer Center, and served as the Founding Director of the Pacific Center for Genome Research, a University-wide multicomponent Center dedicated to foster innovative genomic research, genomic workforce development, and community engagement of genomic research across University of Hawaiʻi. Nationwide, he chairs steering committee of the Centers for Genome Research Consortium, which encompasses six NHGRI-funded centers for genome research nationwide.
Dr. Wu’s research has been supported by various grants from the National Cancer Institute, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, and V Foundation etc. He has been the Principal Investigator (PI) or contact MPI for U54 Center grant, U01, R01, and K99/R00 awards. He has authored or co-authored over 140 peer-reviewed scientific papers addressing a wide range of issues related to cancer epidemiology, genetics, and etiology. Dr. Wu frequently serves on study sections and review panels of NIH, V Foundation, and other international institutes and grant agencies of UK and Switzerland. He serves as an Associate Editor of Molecular Carcinogenesis, and an Editorial Board Member of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, BMC Cancer, and Frontiers in Genetics. Dr. Wu has received several honors and awards for his work, including Mayo Clinic Early-Career Alumni Award, American College of Epidemiology’s Early Career Epidemiologist Award, V Foundation V Scholar Award, University of Hawaiʻi Nominee for the 2024 Governor’s Awards for Distinguished State Service (State Employee of the Year), Dr. Herbert and Nicole Wertheim Leadership in Healthcare and Medicine Lectureship, NCI Epidemiology and Genomics Research Program (EGRP)’s Research Highlights, and top 10 most-cited papers published by International Journal of Cancer etc.
Research Interests
Dr. Wu’s research involves the epidemiologic investigation of genetic, molecular, nutritional, and lifestyle factors in etiology and prognosis of chronic diseases, especially cancer. His long-term research goal is to translate the gained knowledge for prevention, risk assessment, early detection, and prognosis prediction of human chronic diseases.
A main focus of Dr. Wu’s current research is to conduct integrative multi-omics (genomics, transcriptomics, methylomics, proteomics, metabolomics, etc.) studies to identify novel susceptibility genes and biomarkers for chronic diseases across populations. He has led several large transcriptome-wide association studies evaluating associations of genetically-predicted gene expression levels with risks of prostate, pancreatic, and breast cancers, which identified multiple novel susceptibility gene candidates for these cancers. He has also been investigating DNA methylation, protein, and metabolite biomarkers associated with human diseases using genetic instruments, which identified multiple novel biomarker candidates for prostate and pancreatic cancer. Furthermore, Dr. Wu is studying disease risk prediction using genetic, molecular, and other information.
Bibliography
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/1VYkb53qPHWAK/bibliography/public/