Research Interests
Research Topics
Immunology, Virology, Molecular Evolution, Protein Structure, Bioinformatics
Disease Research Interests
Infectious Diseases
Research Description
The Wu lab focuses on three research questions:
- What are the constraints of virus evolution?
- Can we predict antibody specificity?
- Can we improve the quality and speed of vaccine design?
The Wu lab addresses these questions mainly in the context of influenza virus and SARS-CoV-2, using molecular virology, protein biochemistry, next-generation sequencing, high-throughput assays, x-ray crystallography, cryo-EM, and machine learning.
Education
Postdoc, The Scripps Research Institute, 2020
Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 2015
B.S., University of Virginia, 2010
Awards and Honors
UIUC I.C. Gunsalus Scholar Award (2025)
UIUC Distinguished Promotion Award (2025)
UIUC MCB Outstanding Graduate Student Mentor Award (2024)
Vallee Scholar Award (2024)
Viruses Early Career Investigator Award (2022)
UIUC MCB Outstanding Junior Faculty Award (2022)
ASV Ann Palmenberg Junior Investigator Award (2022)
Searle Scholar Award (2022)
Michelson Prize (2021)
ESWI Young Scientist Innovative Award (2021)
NIH Director's New Innovator Award (2021)
NIH Pathway to Independence Award (2019)
Croucher Postdoctoral Fellowship (2015-2017)
Highlighted Publications
Lv H, Huan YW, Teo QW, Chen C, Pholcharee T, Gopal AB, Ardagh MR, Huang JJ, Lei R, Chen X, Sun Y, Mehta A, Szlembarski M, Mao KJ, Ma EX, Wittenborn LE, Tong M, Rodriguez LA, Wang L, Mok CKP#, Wu NC#. Evolution of antibody cross-reactivity to influenza H5N1 neuraminidase from an N2-specific germline. Cell Host & Microbe 33:1916-1928.e6 (2025)
Ouyang WO, Lv H, Liu W, Lei R, Mou Z, Pholcharee T, Talmage L, Tong M, Ji W, Wang Y, Dailey KE, Gopal AB, Choi D, Ardagh MR, Rodriguez LA, Guthmiller JJ, Dai X, Wu NC. High-throughput synthesis and specificity characterization of natively paired influenza hemagglutinin antibodies with oPool+ display. Science Translational Medicine 17:eadt4147 (2025)
Wang Y*, Lv H*, Teo QW, Lei R, Gopal AB, Ouyang WO, Yueng YH, Tan TJC, Choi D, Shen IR, Chen X, Graham CS, Wu NC. An explainable language model for antibody specificity prediction using curated influenza hemagglutinin antibodies. Immunity 57:2453-2465.e7 (2024)
Lei R*, Kim W*, Lv H*, Mou Z*, Scherm MJ*, Schmitz AJ, Turner JS, Tan TJC, Wang Y, Ouyang WO, Liang W, Rivera-Cardona J, Teo C, Graham CS, Brooke CB, Presti RM, Mok CKP#, Krammer F#, Dai X#, Ellebedy AH#, Wu NC#. Leveraging vaccination-induced protective antibodies to define conserved epitopes on influenza N2 neuraminidase. Immunity 56:2621-2634.e6 (2023)
Tan TJC, Mou Z, Lei R, Ouyang WO, Yuan M, Song G, Andrabi R, Wilson IA, Kieffer C, Dai X, Matreyek KA, Wu NC. High-throughput identification of prefusion-stabilizing mutations in SARS-CoV-2 spike. Nature Communications 14:2003 (2023)
(*co-first, #co-corresponding)
Recent Publications
Calderin, J. D., Zhang, C., Tan, T. J. C., Wu, N. C., & Fratti, R. (2025). Use of Bio-Layer Interferometry (BLI) to Measure Binding Affinities of SNAREs and Phosphoinositides. In Methods in Molecular Biology (pp. 103-117). (Methods in Molecular Biology; Vol. 2887). Humana Press Inc.. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-4314-3_7
Larsen, S. L., Yang, J., Lv, H., Huan, Y. W., Teo, Q. W., Pholcharee, T., Lei, R., Gopal, A. B., Shao, E. K., Talmage, L., Mok, C. K. P., Takahashi, S., Kraay, A. N. M., Wu, N. C., & Martinez, P. P. (2025). Reimagining the serocatalytic model for infectious diseases: A case study of common coronaviruses. Epidemics, 53, Article 100859. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epidem.2025.100859
Lv, H., Teo, Q. W., Lee, C. C. D., Liang, W., Choi, D., Mao, K. J., Ardagh, M. R., Gopal, A. B., Mehta, A., Szlembarski, M., Bruzzone, R., Wilson, I. A., Wu, N. C., & Mok, C. K. P. (2025). Differential antigenic imprinting effects between influenza H1N1 hemagglutinin and neuraminidase in a mouse model. Journal of virology, 99(1), Article e0169524. https://doi.org/10.1128/jvi.01695-24
Madsen, A., Okba, N. M. A., Pholcharee, T., Matz, H. C., Lv, H., Ibanez Trullen, M., Zhou, J. Q., Turner, J. S., Schmitz, A. J., Han, F., Horvath, S. C., Malladi, S. K., Krammer, F., Wu, N. C., & Ellebedy, A. H. (2025). Identification of a seasonal influenza vaccine-induced broadly protective neuraminidase antibody. The Journal of experimental medicine, 222(6). https://doi.org/10.1084/jem.20241930
Ouyang, W. O., Lv, H., Liu, W., Lei, R., Mou, Z., Pholcharee, T., Talmage, L., Tong, M., Ji, W., Wang, Y., Dailey, K. E., Gopal, A. B., Choi, D., Ardagh, M. R., Rodriguez, L. A., Guthmiller, J. J., Dai, X., & Wu, N. C. (2025). High-throughput synthesis and specificity characterization of natively paired influenza hemagglutinin antibodies with oPool+ display. Science Translational Medicine, 17(814). https://doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.adt4147
