Vice Dean of the School of Basic Medical Sciences
Director of Experiment Teaching Centre of Basic Medical Sciences (National Demonstration Centre)

2014.1- Department of Anatomy, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Capital Medical University (Professor)
2005.10-2013.12 Department of Anatomy, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Capital Medical University (Associate Professor)
2003.10-2005.10 Neuroadaptation Group, Max-Planck-Institute of Psychiatry, Munich, Germany (Postdoc)
2000.9-2003.9 Department of Anatomy, the Chinese University of Hong Kong (PhD)
1997.9-2000.7 Department of Anatomy, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Capital Medical University (Master of Medicine)
1992.9-1997.7 Department of Clinical Medicine, Capital Medical University (Bachelor of Medicine)

She is a committee member of Chinese Society for Anatomical Science and China Association for Alzheimer’s Disease, and Vice Secretary General of Beijing Society for Anatomical Science.

Research Interests and Achievements: She and her team focus on exploring the synaptic mechanisms of Alzheimer’s Disease.
1.    The effects of hippocampal astrocytes on caspase-dependent Aβ synaptotoxicity.
2.    The effects of hippocampal astrocytes on NMDA receptor-dependent Aβ synaptotoxicity.
3.    The effects of NMDA receptor subunits phosphorylation on Aβ synaptotoxicity in the hippocampus.
4.    Aβ-induced alterations in subcellular expression and function of hippocampal NMDA receptor subunits
5.    The effects of NMDA receptor activity on Aβ synaptotoxicity in the rat hippocampus and the related mechanisms.
The main achievements include: 1) first finding and confirming that apoptosis and cell loss are unlikely to be the cause of functional decline during aging in SAM hippocampus, while it is possible that increasing astrogliosis is one cause of decreased synaptic functions by reducing the potential synaptic plasticity; 2) providing valuable evidence indicating that caspases and NMDAR subunits may play significant multi-functions during postnatal development by systematic studies; 3) first revealing that glucocorticoid-induced neurotoxicity in hippocampus is through both intrinsic and extrinsic pathways, and mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) plays an important role in the regulation regulation; 4) confirming that Aβ synaptotoxicity is NMDAR-dependent, first finding that extrinsic pathway play a key role in the early Aβ synaptotoxicity, and revealing amazing distinct effects of different NMDAR subunits. 5) revealing that Aβ exerts complex and distinct regulatory effects on the trafficking and phosphorylation of GluN2A and GluN2B, as well as on their localization within synaptic and non-synaptic sites 6) doing initial studies to understand the basis for the differential effects of astrocytic and neuronal GluN2A and GluN2B in the promotion of synapse survival. All of these contribute to prevention and early therapy of Alzheimer's disease. More than 50 literatures were published in Molecular Psychiatry, Neurobiology of Aging, and Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease (JAD) etc. Prof. Wu is one of the associate editors in JAD, and her researches are supported by Beijing Natural Science Foundation and Beijing BaiQianWan Talents Program, and were supported by Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University, Beijing NOVA program, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Beijing outstanding personnel training foundation, etc.
Publication:
1.    Li Y, Chang L, Song Y, Gao X, Roselli F, Liu J, Zhou W, Fang Y, Lin Wei, Li H, Almeida OF, Wu Y*. Astrocytic GluN2A and GluN2B oppose the synaptotoxic effects of Aβ1-40 in hippocampal cells. Journal Alzheimer’s Disease. 2016;in press.
2.    Chang L, Zhang Y, Liu J, Song Y, Lv A, Li Y, Zhou W, Yan Z, Almeida OF, Wu Y*. Differential regulation of N-Methyl-D-Aspartate receptor subunits is an early events in the actions of soluble amyloid-beta1-40 oligomers on hippocampal neurons. Journal Alzheimer’s Disease. 2016;51(1):197-212.
3.    Chang L, Zhang X, Liu W, Song Y, Gao X, Ling W, Wu Y*. Immunoreactivity of Ki-67/β-tubulin and immunocolocalization with active caspase-3 in rat dentate gyrus during postnatal development. Journal of Chemical Neuroanatomy. 2012;46(1-2):10-8.
4.    Ling W, Chang L, Song Y,  Lu T, Jiang Y, Li Y, Wu Y*. Immunolocalization of NR1, NR2A, and PSD-95 in rat hippocampal subregions during postnatal development. Acta Histochemica. 2012;114(3):285-95.
5.    Chang L, Liu J, Song Y, Lu T, Lu G, Wu Y*. Expression of caspase-8 and caspase-9 in rat hippocampus during postnatal development. Microscopy Research and Technique. 2011;74(2):153-8.