Claudia Yun Wei, Ph.D.

Principle Investigator - Claudia Yun Wei, Ph.D, received her B.S. from College of Life Sciences in Wuhan University, worked for one year as a technician in Chinese Academy of Sciences with the advisor Guohong Li, then transitioned to the U.S., Emory University and got her Ph.D. in Cancer Biology program, with advisor Anna M. Kenney, studying medulloblastoma. Afterwards, she moved to Boston and did her postdoctoral studies on rhabdomyosarcoma, with the mentor David M. Langenau, at Mass General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. She has broad interests in new technologies of single-cell multiomics, especially the dynamics of cell state transitions, that is regulated by the interaction between transcription factor and chromatin regulators, which could contribute to cancer cell plasticity. Dr. Wei is interested in less studied pediatric tumors, sometimes the rarer forms due to the lack of attention to these tumors. For example, recurrent fusion genes were reported in young patients that normally associate with worse prognosis, yet patient tumors were not modeled in the lab setting. Dr. Wei hopes to model these patient tumors either with 2D stem cell culture, 3D organoids, or even with transgenic zebrafish or mouse models. Comprehensive profiling and mechanism work will be performed to understand how these putative oncogenes contribute to malignant transformation. Proposed research topics were funded by National Cancer Institute K99/R00 transition award, Texas CPRIT award, and UTSW Pediatrics department start-up money. 

In her life out-of-work, Claudia likes to spend time with her two little ones, loves badminton, cycling, hiking, and is really into Japanese animations, classic action movies, and horror books/TV shows.