Linghua Wang, Ph.D.
Department of Genomic Medicine, Division of Cancer Medicine
About Dr. Wang
Dr. Wang became an independent PI in 2017 and currently she is a tenure-track Assistant Professor at Department of Genomic Medicine, MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Wang received her M.D. in Medicine and Ph.D. in Cancer Genomics. She completed her postdoctoral training at Department of Molecular and Human Genetics and Human Genome Sequencing Center, Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), where she became a research faculty in 2014 and successfully led the integrative genomic analysis of multiple large-scale cancer projects at BCM. Over the past several years, Dr. Wang has published over 30 peer-reviewed manuscripts and many of them were published on high-impact journals including Nature, Nature Medicine, Nature Genetics, Cell, Science Translational Medicine, GUT, Blood, Leukemia, and Genome Research. Dr. Wang has significant experience in Immunogenomics, Tumor microenvironment (TME) profiling, Single cell computational biology, Intratumoral heterogeneity and evolution, and Cancer-specific bioinformatics. Dr. Wang and her team aim to advance our scientific and clinical understanding and treatment of cancer through integrative genomic and immunogenomic profiling of tumor cells and the TME using cutting-edge technologies. Her lab’s primary interests are to develop and apply innovative bioinformatics approaches to dissect the tumor-immune'ecosystem', in particular, to profile the cellular & molecular heterogeneity of tumor cells and cells of the TME, the tumor-immune interaction and their evolutionary dynamics, in order to elucidate mechanisms of immune suppression in cancer, and identify the molecular & genomic determinants of drug response/resistance and potential therapeutic vulnerabilities.
Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Assistant Professor, Department of Genomic Medicine, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Research Interests
Single cell computational biology, Tumor microenvironment, Tumor-immune interaction and co-evolution, Tumor heterogeneity, Cancer and Immuno-genomics
Education & Training
Degree-Granting Education
| 2011 | The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, JPN, PHD, Cancer Genomics |
| 2006 | Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, CHN, MS, Ophthalmology |
| 2003 | Taishan Medical University, Taian, CHN, MD, Medicine |
Postgraduate Training
| 2012-2014 | Postdoctoral Associate, Cancer Genomics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX |
| 2007-2008 | Research Fellowship, Cancer Genetics, Nihon University School of Medicine, Tokyo |
Experience & Service
Academic Appointments
Assistant Professor, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 2015 - 2017
Instructor, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 2014 - 2015
Professional Memberships
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Reddy SM, Reuben A, Barua S, Jiang H, Zhang S, Wang L, Gopalakrishnan V, Hudgens CW, Tetzlaff MT, Reuben JM, Tsujikawa T, Coussens LM, Wani K, He Y, Villareal L, Wood A, Rao A, Woodward WA, Ueno NT, Krishnamurthy S, Wargo JA, Mittendorf EA. Poor Response to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy Correlates with Mast Cell Infiltration in Inflammatory Breast Cancer. Cancer Immunol Res 7(6):1025-1035, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 31043414.
- Zhang L, Yao Y, Zhang S, Liu Y, Guo H, Ahmed M, Bell T, Zhang H, Han G, Lorence E, Badillo M, Zhou S, Sun Y, Di Francesco ME, Feng N, Haun R, Lan R, Mackintosh SG, Mao X, Song X, Zhang J, Pham LV, Lorenzi PL, Marszalek J, Heffernan T, Draetta G, Jones P, Futreal A, Nomie K, *Wang L, Wang M. Metabolic reprogramming toward oxidative phosphorylation identifies a therapeutic target for mantle cell lymphoma. Sci Transl Med 11(491), 2019. PMID: 31068440.
- Amaria RN, Reddy SM, Tawbi HA, Davies MA, Ross MI, Glitza IC, Cormier JN, Lewis C, Hwu WJ, Hanna E, Diab A, Wong MK, Royal R, Gross N, Weber R, Lai SY, Ehlers R, Blando J, Milton DR, Woodman S, Kageyama R, Wells DK, Hwu P, Patel SP, Lucci A, Hessel A, Lee JE, Gershenwald J, Simpson L, Burton EM, Posada L, Haydu L, Wang L, Zhang S, Lazar AJ, Hudgens CW, Gopalakrishnan V, Reuben A, Andrews MC, Spencer CN, Prieto V, Sharma P, Allison J, Tetzlaff MT, Wargo JA. Neoadjuvant immune checkpoint blockade in high-risk resectable melanoma. Nat Med 24(11):1649-1654, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 30297909.
- Jain P, Kanagal-Shamanna R, Zhang S, Ahmed M, Ghorab A, Zhang L, Ok CY, Li S, Hagemeister F, Zeng D, Gong T, Chen W, Badillo M, Nomie K, Fayad L, Medeiros LJ, Neelapu S, Fowler N, Romaguera J, Champlin R, Wang L, Wang ML. Long-term outcomes and mutation profiling of patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) who discontinued ibrutinib. Br J Haematol 183(4):578-587, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 30175400.
- Bailey MH, Tokheim C, Porta-Pardo E, Sengupta S, Bertrand D, Weerasinghe A, Colaprico A, Wendl MC, Kim J, Reardon B, Kwok-Shing Ng P, Jeong KJ, Cao S, Wang Z, Gao J, Gao Q, Wang F, Liu EM, Mularoni L, Rubio-Perez C, Nagarajan N, Cortés-Ciriano I, Zhou DC, Liang WW, Hess JM, Yellapantula VD, Tamborero D, Gonzalez-Perez A, Suphavilai C, Ko JY, Khurana E, Park PJ, Van Allen EM, Liang H, MC3 Working Group, Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network, Lawrence MS, Godzik A, Lopez-Bigas N, Stuart J, Wheeler D, Getz G, Chen K, Lazar AJ, Mills GB, Karchin R, Ding L. Comprehensive Characterization of Cancer Driver Genes and Mutations. Cell 174(4):1034-1035, 2018. PMID: 30096302.
- Shen H, Shih J, Hollern DP, *Wang L, Bowlby R, Tickoo SK, Thorsson V, Mungall AJ, Newton Y, Hegde AM, Armenia J, Sánchez-Vega F, Pluta J, Pyle LC, Mehra R, Reuter VE, Godoy G, Jones J, Shelley CS, Feldman DR, Vidal DO, Lessel D, Kulis T, Cárcano FM, Leraas KM, Lichtenberg TM, Brooks D, Cherniack AD, Cho J, Heiman DI, Kasaian K, Liu M, Noble MS, Xi L, Zhang H, Zhou W, ZenKlusen JC, Hutter CM, Felau I, Zhang J, Schultz N, Getz G, Meyerson M, Stuart JM, Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network, Akbani R, Wheeler DA, Laird PW, Nathanson KL, Cortessis VK, Hoadley KA. (*as co-first author). Integrated molecular characterization of testicular germ cell tumors. Cell Rep 23(11):3392-3406, 2018. PMID: 29898407.
- Knijnenburg TA, *Wang L, Zimmermann MT, Chambwe N, Gao GF, Cherniack AD, Fan H, Shen H, Way GP, Greene CS, Liu Y, Akbani R, Feng B, Donehower LA, Miller C, Shen Y, Karimi M, Chen H, Kim P, Jia P, Shinbrot E, Zhang S, Liu J, Hu H, Bailey MH, Yau C, Wolf D, Zhao Z, Weinstein JN, Li L, Ding L, Mills GB, Laird PW, Wheeler DA, Shmulevich I, Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network, Monnat RJ, Xiao Y, Wang C. (*as co-first author). Genomic and molecular landscape of DNA damage repair deficiency across The Cancer Genome Atlas. Cell Rep 23(1):239-254.e6, 2018. PMID: 29617664.
- Thorsson V, Gibbs DL, Brown SD, Wolf D, Bortone DS, Ou Yang TH, Porta-Pardo E, Gao GF, Plaisier CL, Eddy JA, Ziv E, Culhane AC, Paull EO, Sivakumar IKA, Gentles AJ, Malhotra R, Farshidfar F, Colaprico A, Parker JS, Mose LE, Vo NS, Liu J, Liu Y, Rader J, Dhankani V, Reynolds SM, Bowlby R, Califano A, Cherniack AD, Anastassiou D, Bedognetti D, Rao A, Chen K, Krasnitz A, Hu H, Malta TM, Noushmehr H, Pedamallu CS, Bullman S, Ojesina AI, Lamb A, Zhou W, Shen H, Choueiri TK, Weinstein JN, Guinney J, Saltz J, Holt RA, Rabkin CE, Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network, Lazar AJ, Serody JS, Demicco EG, Disis ML, Vincent BG, Shmulevich L. The Immune Landscape of Cancer. Immunity 48(4):812-830.e14, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 29628290.
- Sanchez-Vega F, Mina M, Armenia J, Chatila WK, Luna A, La KC, Dimitriadoy S, Liu DL, Kantheti HS, Saghafinia S, Chakravarty D, Daian F, Gao Q, Bailey MH, Liang WW, Foltz SM, Shmulevich I, Ding L, Heins Z, Ochoa A, Gross B, Gao J, Zhang H, Kundra R, Kandoth C, Bahceci I, Dervishi L, Dogrusoz U, Zhou W, Shen H, Laird PW, Way GP, Greene CS, Liang H, Xiao Y, Wang C, Iavarone A, Berger AH, Bivona TG, Lazar AJ, Hammer GD, Giordano T, Kwong LN, McArthur G, Huang C, Tward AD, Frederick MJ, McCormick F, Meyerson M, Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network, Van Allen EM, Cherniack AD, Ciriello G, Sander C, Schultz N. Oncogenic Signaling Pathways in The Cancer Genome Atlas. Cell 173(2):321-337.e10, 2018. PMID: 29625050.
- Hoadley KA, Yau C, Hinoue T, Wolf DM, Lazar AJ, Drill E, Shen R, Taylor AM, Cherniack AD, Thorsson V, Akbani R, Bowlby R, Wong CK, Wiznerowicz M, Sanchez-Vega F, Robertson AG, Schneider BG, Lawrence MS, Noushmehr H, Malta TM, Cancer Genome Atlas Network, Stuart JM, Benz CC, Laird PW. Cell-of-Origin Patterns Dominate the Molecular Classification of 10,000 Tumors from 33 Types of Cancer. Cell 173(2):291-304.e6, 2018. PMID: 29625048.
- Taylor AM, Shih J, Ha G, Gao GF, Zhang X, Berger AC, Schumacher SE, Wang C, Hu H, Liu J, Lazar AJ, Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network, Cherniack AD, Beroukhim R, Meyerson M. Genomic and Functional Approaches to Understanding Cancer Aneuploidy. Cancer Cell 33(4):676-689.e3, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 29622463.
- Saltz J, Gupta R, Hou L, Kurc T, Singh P, Nguyen V, Samaras D, Shroyer KR, Zhao T, Batiste R, Van Arnam J, Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network, Shmulevich I, Rao AUK, Lazar AJ, Sharma A, Thorsson V. Spatial Organization and Molecular Correlation of Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes Using Deep Learning on Pathology Images. Cell Rep 23(1):181-193.e7, 2018. PMID: 29617659.
- Way GP, Sanchez-Vega F, La K, Armenia J, Chatila WK, Luna A, Sander C, Cherniack AD, Mina M, Ciriello G, Schultz N, Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network, Sanchez Y, Greene CS. Machine Learning Detects Pan-cancer Ras Pathway Activation in The Cancer Genome Atlas. Cell Rep 23(1):172-180.e3, 2018. PMID: 29617658.
- Lefrançois P, Xie P, Wang L, Tetzlaff MT, Moreau L, Watters AK, Netchiporouk E, Provost N, Gilbert M, Ni X, Sasseville D, Wheeler DA, Duvic M, Litvinov IV. Gene expression profiling and immune cell-type deconvolution highlight robust disease progression and survival markers in multiple cohorts of CTCL patients. Oncoimmunology 7(8):e1467856, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 30221071.
- TCGA-HCC group including *Wang L (*as co-first author). Comprehensive and Integrative Genomic Characterization of Hepatocellular Carcinoma. Cell 169(7):1327-1341.e23, 2017. PMID: 28622513.
- Lanikova L, Babosova O, Swierczek S, *Wang L, Wheeler DA, Divoky V, Korinek V, Prchal JT. Coexistence of gain-of-function JAK2 germ line mutations with JAK2V617F in polycythemia vera. Blood 128(18):2266-2270, 2016. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 27647865.
- Eckstein OS, *Wang L, Punia JN, Kornblau SM, Andreeff M, Wheeler DA, Goodell MA, Rau RE.. Mixed-phenotype acute leukemia (MPAL) exhibits frequent mutations in DNMT3A and activated signaling genes. Exp Hematol 44(8):740-4, 2016. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 27208809.
- *Wang L, Ni X, Covington KR, Yang BY, Shiu J, Zhang X, Xi L, Meng Q, Langridge T, Drummond J, Donehower LA, Doddapaneni H, Muzny DM, Gibbs RA, Wheeler DA, Duvic M. Genomic profiling of Sézary syndrome identifies alterations of key T cell signaling and differentiation genes. Nat Genet 47(12):1426-34, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26551670.
- Chakraborty R, Hampton OA, Shen X, Simko SJ, Shih A, Abhyankar H, Lim KP, Covington KR, Trevino L, Dewal N, Muzny DM, Doddapaneni H, Hu J, *Wang L, Lupo PJ, Hicks MJ, Bonilla DL, Dwyer KC, Berres ML, Poulikakos PI, Merad M, McClain KL, Wheeler DA, Allen CE, Parsons DW. Mutually exclusive recurrent somatic mutations in MAP2K1 and BRAF support a central role for ERK activation in LCH pathogenesis. Blood 124(19):3007-15, 2014. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 25202140.
- Arai E, Sakamoto H, Ichikawa H, Totsuka H, Chiku S, Gotoh M, Mori T, Nakatani T, Ohnami S, Nakagawa T, Fujimoto H, Wang L, Aburatani H, Yoshida T, Kanai Y. Multilayer-omics analysis of renal cell carcinoma, including the whole exome, methylome and transcriptome. Int J Cancer 135(6):1330-42, 2014. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 24504440.
- *Wang L, Yamaguchi S, Burstein MD, Terashima K, Chang K, Ng HK, Nakamura H, He Z, Doddapaneni H, Lewis L, Wang M, Suzuki T, Nishikawa R, Natsume A, Terasaka S, Dauser R, Whitehead W, Adekunle A, Sun J, Qiao Y, Marth G, Muzny DM, Gibbs RA, Leal SM, Wheeler DA, Lau CC. Novel somatic and germline mutations in intracranial germ cell tumours. Nature 511(7508):241-5, 2014. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 24896186.
- *Wang L, Swierczek SI, Drummond J, Hickman K, Kim SJ, Walker K, Doddapaneni H, Muzny DM, Gibbs RA, Wheeler DA, Prchal JT. Whole-exome sequencing of polycythemia vera revealed novel driver genes and somatic mutation shared by T cells and granulocytes. Leukemia 28(4):935-8, 2014. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 24413320.
- *Wang L, Swierczek SI, Lanikova L, Kim SJ, Hickman K, Walker K, Wang K, Drummond J, Doddapaneni H, Reid JG, Muzny DM, Gibbs RA, Wheeler DA, Prchal JT. The relationship of JAK2(V617F) and acquired UPD at chromosome 9p in polycythemia vera. Leukemia 28(4):938-41, 2014. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 24463469.
- Ikeda Y, Oda K, Nakagawa S, Murayama-Hosokawa S, Yamamoto S, Ishikawa S, Wang L, Takazawa Y, Maeda D, Wada-Hiraike O, Kawana K, Fukayama M, Aburatani H, Yano T, Kozuma S, Taketani Y. Genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism arrays as a diagnostic tool in patients with synchronous endometrial and ovarian cancer. Int J Gynecol Cancer 22(5):725-31, 2012. PMID: 22635024.
- *Wang L, Tsutsumi S, Kawaguchi T, Nagasaki K, Tatsuno K, Yamamoto S, Sang F, Sonoda K, Sugawara M, Saiura A, Hirono S, Yamaue H, Miki Y, Isomura M, Totoki Y, Nagae G, Isagawa T, Ueda H, Murayama-Hosokawa S, Shibata T, Sakamoto H, Kanai Y, Kaneda A, Noda T, Aburatani H. Whole-exome sequencing of human pancreatic cancers and characterization of genomic instability caused by MLH1 haploinsufficiency and complete deficiency. Genome Res 22(2):208-19, 2012. e-Pub 2011. PMID: 22156295.
- Totoki Y, Tatsuno K, Yamamoto S, Arai Y, Hosoda F, Ishikawa S, Tsutsumi S, Sonoda K, Totsuka H, Shirakihara T, Sakamoto H, *Wang L, Ojima H, Shimada K, Kosuge T, Okusaka T, Kato K, Kusuda J, Yoshida T, Aburatani H, Shibata T. High-resolution characterization of a hepatocellular carcinoma genome. Nat Genet 43(5):464-9, 2011. e-Pub 2011. PMID: 21499249.
- Goschzik T, Gessi M, Dreschmann V, Gebhardt U, *Wang L, Yamaguchi S, Wheeler DA, Lauriola L, Lau CC, Müller HL, Pietsch T. Genomic Alterations of Adamantinomatous and Papillary Craniopharyngioma. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28069929.
- Wang R, Song S, Harada K, Ghazanfari Amlashi F, Badgwell B, Pizzi MP, Xu Y, Zhao W, Dong X, Jin J, Wang Y, Scott A, Ma L, Huo L, Vicente D, Blum Murphy M, Shanbhag N, Tatlonghari G, Thomas I, Rogers J, Kobayashi M, Vykoukal J, Estrella JS, Roy-Chowdhuri S, Han G, Zhang S, Mao X, Song X, Zhang J, Gu J, Johnson RL, Calin GA, Peng G, Lee JS, Hanash SM, Futreal A, Wang Z, *Wang L, Ajani JA. Multiplex profiling of peritoneal metastases from gastric adenocarcinoma identified novel targets and molecular subtypes that predict treatment response. Gut. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 31171626.
- Li F, Xu Y, Liu B, Singh PK, Zhao W, Jin J, Han G, Scott AW, Dong X, Huo L, Ma L, Pool Pizzi M, Wang Y, Li Y, Harada K, Xie M, Skinner HD, Ding S, Wang L, Krishnan S, Johnson RL, Song S, Ajani JA. YAP1-mediated CDK6 Activation Confers Radiation Resistance in Esophageal Cancer - Rationale for the combination of YAP1 and CDK4/6 inhibitors in Esophageal Cancer. Clin Cancer Res. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 30563933.
Invited Articles
- *Wang L, Wheeler DA, Prchal JT.. Acquired uniparental disomy of chromosome 9p in hematologic malignancies. Exp Hematol 44(8):644-52, 2016. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26646991.
- *Wang L & Wheeler DA.. Genomic sequencing for cancer diagnosis and therapy. Annu Rev Med 65:33-48, 2014. e-Pub 2013. PMID: 24274147.
- Wheeler DA & *Wang L.. From human genome to cancer genome: the first decade. Genome Res 23(7):1054-62, 2013. PMID: 23817046.
- Aburatani H & *Wang L.. Integrated genomic analysis of pancreatic ductal carcinoma. Experimental Medicine 30:33-38, 2012.
- Wang L, Ajani JA. Ushering in Liquid Biopsy for the Microsatellite Status: Advantages and Caveats. Clin Cancer Res. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 31527165.
Other Articles
- Ruiping Wang, Shumei Song, Kazuto Harada, Guangchun Han, Melissa Pool Pizzi, Meina Zhao, Ghia Tatlonghari, Shaojun Zhang, Yuanxin Wang, Shuangtao Zhao, Brian D. Badgwell, Mariela Blum Murphy, Namita Shanbhag, Jeannelyn S. Estrella, Sinchita Roy-Chowdhuri, Ahmed Adel Fouad Abdelhakeem, Guang Peng, George A. Calin, Samir Hanash, Alexander J. Lazar, Andrew Futreal, Jaffer A. Ajani, Linghua Wang Cell-of-Origin Analysis of Metastatic Gastric Cancer Uncovers the Origin of Inherent Intratumor Heterogeneity and a Fundamental Prognostic Signature. BioRxiv (preprint).
- Wang Y, Wang R, Zhang S, Song S, Jiang C, Han G, Wang M, Ajani J, Futreal A, Wang L iTALK: an R Package to Characterize and Illustrate Intercellular Communication. BioRxiv (preprint).
Grant & Contract Support
| Title: | NCI Exceptional Responders (Subaward-Subcontract) |
| Funding Source: | NIH/NCI |
| Role: | Principal Investigator-MDACC |
| Title: | Start-up funds for Tenure-Track Assistant Professor |
| Funding Source: | MDACC-IRG |
| Role: | Principal Investigator |
| Title: | B-Cell Lymphoma Moon Shot Program |
| Funding Source: | The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center |
| Role: | Co-Investigator |
| Title: | High-Risk Multiple Myeloma Moon Shot Pilot Program |
| Funding Source: | The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center |
| Role: | Co-Investigator |
| Title: | A biomarker-based, combination therapy with immune checkpoint blockade and pemetrexed for MTAP-deficient metastatic bladder cancer |
| Funding Source: | Doris Duke Charitable Foundation |
| Role: | Co-Investigator |
| Title: | Discover Novel Therapeutic Strategies for Peritoneal Metastases from Gastric Adenocarcinoma |
| Funding Source: | DOD/Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (DOD/CDMRP) |
| Role: | Co-Investigator |
| Title: | Targeting Tim-3 as a Novel Therapeutic Strategy for Advanced Gastric Cancer with Peritoneal Metastases |
| Funding Source: | Andrew Sabin Family Foundation |
| Role: | Principal Investigator |
| Title: | Dissecting the Multicellular Ecosystem of Metastatic Gastric Adenocarcinoma by Longitudinal Single Cell Sequencing of Malignant Ascites Cells and PBMCs with Primary and Normal Gastric Tissue as control |
| Funding Source: | MDACC-IRG |
| Role: | Principal Investigator |
| Title: | Epithelial memory of resolved inflammation as a driver of pancreatic cancer progression |
| Funding Source: | Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) |
| Role: | Co-Investigator |
| Title: | HPV+ Cancer Moon Shot Program |
| Funding Source: | The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center |
| Role: | Co-Investigator |