Lisheng Wang
Assistant Professor

Degrees:

Ph.D. University of Sydney 1999
Post-doctoral in immunology at Harvard Medical School
Post-doctoral in stem cell biology and regenerative medicine at Robarts Research Institute

Research Interests:

Using cellular and molecular approaches and in vivo animal models, Dr. Wang’s laboratory is interested in nurturing human embryonic stem cell (hESCs) into mothers of circulatory cells and immune cells, generating transplantable cells for stem cell-based clinic therapy, and reducing transplantation rejection.

hESCs can theoretically divide without limit (termed self-renewal) and grow into almost any type of cell (termed pluripotency), raising attractive prospect of cell replacement therapy to treat or even cure many diseases. Maintenance and differentiation of hESCs are challenging. Using rigorous criteria, Dr. Wang’s laboratory has established and improved the techniques to expand, freeze-thaw, maintain, evaluate and differentiate hESCs. Dr. Wang and his colleagues have defined mother cells of endothelium (lining cells in circulatory vessels) and blood during differentiation of hESCs. These mother cells can give rise to either endothelium or blood under different biochemical signals. Further studies have shown that hESC-derived blood cells have repopulating capacity in immunodeficient mice (blood stem cell property). These findings have set up a foundation for future studies.

Selected Publications:

Menendez P, Wang L, Cerdan C, Bhatia M. Retroviral transduction of hematopoietic progenitors derived from human embryonic stem cells. Methods Mol Biol. 2006;331:201-20. Abstract

Wang L, Cerdan C, Menendez P, Bhatia M. Derivation and characterization of hematopoietic cells from human embryonic stem cells. Methods Mol Biol. 2006;331:179-200. Abstract

Cerdan C, Bendall SC, Wang L, Stewart M, Werbowetski T, Bhatia M. Complement targeting of nonhuman sialic acid does not mediate cell death of human ESCs. Nature Medicine 2006; 12: 1113-1114. Abstract / Full Paper

Wang L. Endothelial and hematopoietic cell fate of human embryonic stem cells. Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine. (Review) 2006; 16:89-94. Abstract

Menendez P, Bueno C, Wang L. Human embryonic stem cells: A journey beyond cell replacement therapies. Cytotherapy. (Review) 2006; 8(6):530-41. Abstract

Wang L*, Menende P* (*equal contribution), Shojaei F, Li L, Mazurier F, Dick JE, Cerdan C, Levac K, Bhatia M. Generation of hematopoietic repopulating cells from human embryonic stem cells independent of ectopic HoxB4 expression. Journal of Experimental Medicine 2005; 201: 1603-1614. Abstract

Wang L, Li L, Menendez P, Cerdan C, Goodale D, Bhatia M. Human embryonic stem cells maintained in the absence of mouse embryonic fibroblasts or conditioned media are capable of hematopoietic development. Blood 2005; 105: 4598-4603. Abstract

Roura-Mir C*, Wang L* (* equal contribution), Cheng TC, Matsunaga I, Dascher C, Peng S, Fenton MJ, Moody DB. M. tuberculosis regulates CD1 antigen presentation pathways through TLR-2. Journal of Immunology 2005; 175:1758-1766. Abstract

Wang L, Menendez P, Cerdan C, Bhatia M. Hematopoietic cells from human embryonic stem cells. Experimental Hematology (Review) 2005; 33:987-96. Abstract

Menendez P, Wang L, Bhatia M. Genetic manipulation of human embryonic stem cells: a powerful approach for studies in human development and potential therapeutic applications. Current Gene Therapy (Review) 2005; 5: 375-85. Abstract

Wang L, Li L, Shojaei F, Levac K,Cerdan C,Menendez P, Martin T, Rouleau A, Bhatia M. Endothelial and hematopoietic cell fate of human embryonic stem cells originates from primitive endothelium with hemangioblastic properties. Immunity 2004; 21: 31-41. Abstract

Menendez P, Wang L, Chadwick K, Li L & Mickie Bhatia. Retroviral transduction of hematopoietic cells differentiated from human embryonic stem cell-derived CD45 negPFV hemogenic precursors. Molecular Therapy 2004; 10: 1109-1120. Abstract

Chadwick K*, Wang L* (*equal contribution), Li L, Menendez P, Murdoch B, Rouleau A, Bhatia M. Cytokines and BMP-4 promote hematopoietic differentiation of human embryonic stem cells. Blood 2003; 102: 906-915. (Comment) in Blood 2003; 102: 776. Abstract

Kamath A, Wang L, Das H, Lin L, Reinhold VN, Bukowski JF. Tea Drinking Enhances Immunity to Microbial Antigens by Priming gd T Cells in vivo. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2003; 100: 6009-6014. Abstract

Wang L, Das H, Kamath A, Lin L, Bukowski JF. Human Vγ2Vδ2 T cells augment Migration-inhibitory factor secretion, and counteract the inhibitory effect of glucocorticoids on IL1- b and TNF- a production. Journal of Immunology 2002; 168: 4889-4896. Abstract

Wang L, Kamath A, Das H, Lin L, Bukowski JF. Antibacterial effect of human Vγ2Vδ2 T cells in vivo. Journal of Clinical Investigation 2001; 108: 1349-1357. Abstract

Wang L, Das H, Kamath A, Bukowski JF. Human Vγ2Vδ2 T cells produce IFN-γ and TNF-α with an on/off/on cycling pattern in response to live bacterial products. Journal of Immunology 2001; 167: 6195-6201. Abstract

Das H, Wang L, Kamath A and Bukowski JF. Vγ2Vδ2 T cell receptor–mediated recognition of aminobisphosphonate. Blood 2001; 98(5): 1616-1618. Abstract