Wu Lab @ Columbia · Medicine · Systems Biology

Decoding and Targeting the Central Dogma

Our mission is to decode how the genome is written and read by leveraging RNA-centric functional genomics, CRISPR technologies, and machine learning. We translate these foundational discoveries into innovative therapies to prevent and treat heart disease, cancer, neurological disorders, and aging.

Explore our research Join the lab
0+Publications
0Lab members
0Founded
The Wu Lab group photo, July 2026
The lab, July 2026

What we do

Research

Ribosome & disease

Decipher the heart/muscle-specific RPL3L-containing ribosome in normal physiology and heart disease.

  • Pathogenic mechanisms and therapeutic development for RPL3L-linked dilated cardiomyopathy and heart failure (Murphy et al., 2026 Nature CVR)
  • Specialized function of the muscle-specific RPL3L-containing ribosome

CRISPR technology & therapy

Develop RNA-targeting CRISPR platforms and ASOs that modulate gene expression and reprogram cell fate in disease contexts.

Our work

Publications

Google Scholar Citations →

* co-first author · ^ co-corresponding author · underlined: Xuebing Wu

2026

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2018

2017

2016

2015

  • F. Ann Ran*, Le Cong*, Winston X. Yan*, David A. Scott, Jonathan S. Gootenberg, Andrea J. Kriz, Bernd Zetsche, Ophir Shalem, Xuebing Wu, Kira S. Makarova, Eugene V. Koonin, Phillip A. Sharp, Feng Zhang
    In vivo genome editing using Staphylococcus aureus Cas9
    Nature, 2015, 520:186-191

2014

2013

2010

2009

2008

Xuebing's undergraduate publications

Our team

Lab members

Xuebing Wu

Xuebing Wu, PhD

Principal Investigator

Herbert Irving Assistant Professor
Department of Medicine / Cardiology division — Cardiometabolic Genomics Program
Department of Systems Biology
Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center · Data Science Institute · Columbia Stem Cell Initiative · Columbia RNA Initiative

Alum of: MIT | Whitehead | Tsinghua

Follow me: Twitter/X | Bluesky

xuebing.wu@columbia.edu
Michael Murphy

Michael Murphy

Associate Research Scientist (Senior Postdoc)

Ph.D. in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, City University of New York

Peiguo Shi

Peiguo Shi

Associate Research Scientist (Senior Postdoc)

Ph.D. in Cell Biology, University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

Aditi Trehan

Aditi Trehan

PhD student, Integrated Program in Cellular, Molecular, and Biomedical Studies, Columbia University

MS in Biotechnology, Johns Hopkins University
BS in Neurobiology & Physiology and Cell, Molecular & Developmental Systems Biology, Purdue University

Colin Kalicki

Colin Kalicki

PhD student, Systems Biology, Columbia University

BS in Bioengineering, Stanford University

Feiyue Yang

Feiyue Yang

PhD student, Systems Biology, Columbia University

BS in Biological Science (major) and Data Science and Big Data Technology (minor), China Agricultural University

Caroline Ugoaru

Caroline Ugoaru

MD student

BS in Biology, Howard University

Wesley Huang

Wesley Huang

MD/PhD student, Columbia University

BS in Biology, Caltech

Esther R. Rotlevi

Esther R. Rotlevi

PhD student, Neurobiology and Behavior, Columbia University

B.A., Neuroscience, Queens College, City University of New York

Linqing Xing

Linqing Xing

Postdoctoral Research Scientist

PhD in Biology, Tsinghua University

Srivarenya Vempati

Srivarenya Vempati

High school student

Bergen County Academies

Alexis Ewer

Alexis Ewer

Rotation student, Disease and Therapeutics, Columbia University

BA, Molecular and Cell Biology, UC Berkeley

Lab alumni

  • Jordan Kesner — 8/1/2020-10/1/2023, PhD student -> Postdoc
  • Katherine Da — 9/1/2023-11/30/2023, Visiting undergraduate student, Dartmouth College
  • Yue Yin — 11/01/2021-07/01/2022, Barnard Summer Research Institute, undergraduate student
  • Alexis Aparicio — 02/19/19-08/19/2022, Technician B
  • Jonathan Algoo — 9/20/21-12/14/2021, Rotation student, integrated program
  • Zhou "Zanis" Fang — 11/01/19-12/06/2021, DSI Scholar -> Postdoc
  • Ziheng "Calvin" Chen — 1/15/19-8/10/2020, Master's student, Columbia BME
  • Qijin Yin — 11/25/19-5/10/2020, Visiting PhD student from Tsinghua University
  • Ellen Alt — 5/28/19-8/1/19, Barnard Summer Research Institute, undergraduate student

Tools we built

Software

Lab GitHub →

kpLogo

A web server for positional k-mer analysis.

kplogo.wi.mit.edu →

Wu & Bartel (2017) Nucleic Acids Res, gkx323

CIPHER network diagram

CIPHER

Correlating interactome and phenome networks to predict disease genes — one of the first studies to explore interactome–phenome wide gene–disease relationships, connecting 5,080 human disease phenotypes with 14,433 human genes.

Download dataset →   Explore predictions →   CSHL mirror →

Wu X, Jiang R, Zhang MQ, Li S (2008) Molecular Systems Biology, 4:189

AlignPI interface

AlignPI

“Align Phenome & Interactome” — the first alignment of the human phenome and interactome networks, identifying 39 bi-modules and predicting candidate genes for 70 diseases.

AlignPI website →

Wu X, Liu Q, Jiang R (2009) Bioinformatics, 25(1): 98–104

Shared methods

Protocols

4sU-2P-seq and DIM-2P-seq protocol

Step-by-step protocol (PDF), March 2017.

Life in the lab

Lab news

  1. 10/9/26 Xuebing delivered the Cartwright Lecture in the Inaugural VP&S Frontiers in Research Symposium
  2. 10/7/26 Xuebing gave an invited seminar at Brown University's Giuliani RNA Center
  3. 9/14/26 Lexie started her first rotation in the lab
  4. 9/4/26 Xuebing presented the RPL3L ribosome study at 2026 translational control meeting
  5. 8/19/26 Xuebing received the 2026 Cartwright Award and Lecture
  6. 7/31/26 Congrats to Aditi for winning the Best Poster Award at Columbia RNA Day celebration!
  7. 7/30/26 Xuebing presented the MYC mutagenesis study at 2026 CBIS meeting
  8. 7/1/26 Xuebing was selected as an Irving Scholar
  9. 6/23/26 Lab receives a pilot grant and joins the Burch-Lodge Center for Human Longevity
  10. 5/6/26 Xuebing was interviewed for a news piece at Nature: Revealed: the mysterious ‘dark’ proteins that might play a big role in biology
  11. 5/1/26 MS student Xinmeng Chen joined the lab
  12. 4/9/26 Xuebing presented the MYC mutagenesis study at 2026 CSHL Noncoding & Regulatory RNA meeting
  13. 4/2/26 Xuebing was interviewed for a news piece at Cure: 10 CRISPR Companies to Watch in 2026
  14. 2/3/26 Xuebing gave an invited seminar at UMass RNA Therapeutics Institute
  15. 1/28/26 Peiguo and Feiyue's preprint on MYC saturation mutagenesis available in bioRxiv
  16. 1/6/26 Michael's mutant RPL3L ribosome paper has been published in Nature Cardiovascular Research
  17. 11/19/25 We received funding from the Lewis Katz Cardiovascular Research Prize
  18. 10/9/25 Andrea joined the lab as an undergrad researcher
  19. 8/22/25 Michael gave a talk on his RPL3L work in CSHL mRNA processing meeting
  20. 6/26/25 MD/PhD student Wesley joined the lab
  21. 6/2/25 Biostat MS student Mengyuan joined the lab
  22. 6/1/25 Linqing joined the lab as a postdoc
  23. 5/19/25 Biotech MS student Haikun joined the lab
  24. 4/14/25-4/17 Xuebing gave invited seminars at UCLA, UCSF, and Stanford
  25. 3/31/25 Esther joined the lab as PhD student #4
  26. 1/29/25 Xuebing talked about our work on noncoding translation and microproteins in a Nature news feature
  27. 1/15/25 Xingpei Zhang started rotation in the lab
  28. 1/3/25 Michael's work on RPL3L in heart failure is online in bioRxiv
  29. 1/2/25 Alex and Feiyue's review on functional microprotein is published in Trends in Genetics
  30. 11/8/24 Peiguo's collaborative work with the Que lab is published in Cancer Discovery
  31. 10/22/24 Jordan's review on noncoding translation is published in Trends in Cell Biology
  32. 8/27/24 Henry Le started rotation in the lab
  33. 8/15/24 Xuebing gave an invited seminar at Tsinghua University, Beijing
  34. 7/26/24 Xuebing speaks at the 2024 International Conference on Life Sciences, Guiyang, China
  35. 7/18/24 Xuebing is invited to present in 2024 STXBP1 Summit
  36. 7/8/24 Colin and Feiyue join the lab as PhD student #3 and #4!
  37. 7/8/24 Wesley Huang joins the lab for his summer research rotation
  38. 6/24/24 Xuebing speaks at the 50th Sharp lab reunion symposium “Half A Century of Sharp Minds”
  39. 6/10/24 Caroline Ugoaru joins the lab for her T35 summer research as an MD student
  40. 6/7/24 Xuebing speaks at the 2024 High-Risk, High-Reward Research (HRHR) Symposium at Bethesda
  41. 5/19/24 Peiguo's Cas13 review was published online
  42. 5/13/24 Xuebing was selected as a 2024 Schaefer Research Scholar
  43. 4/19/24 Xuebing speaks at the first Healthspan Extension Summit at Columbia
  44. 4/3/24 Xuebing is invited to speak at the inaugural RNADay@Penn 2024
  45. 3/26/24 We received the MIND Prize to test a new idea for treating neurodegeneration
  46. 2/1/24 We received our first R01 grant from NHLBI!
  47. 1/8/24 We welcomed rotation students Feiyue Yang (Systems Biology) and Sebastian Ho (Nutritional & Metabolic Bio)
  48. 12/20/23 We received a grant from the Million Dollar Bike Ride (MDBR) Grant Program to dissect STXBP1 3’ UTR regulation for therapeutic development
  49. 12/19/23 We received a grant from the Ines Mandl Research Foundation (IMRF) to develop an off-the-shelf gene editing therapy for Marfan Syndrome
  50. 11/17/23 We received a grant from the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund to study noncoding translation and feedback loops in Alzheimer's disease!
  51. 11/10/23 Xuebing is invited to give a seminar at Duke Biology and RNA Center @ Durham
  52. 11/9/23 Xuebing is invited to give a seminar at NIEHS @ Durham
  53. 10/17/23 Xuebing is invited to give a seminar at Koch Institute/MIT
  54. 10/14/23 Xuebing gave a talk at EMBL@Heidelberg, Germany, during the 2023 non-coding genome symposium
  55. 10/13/23 Xuebing is invited to give a seminar at Heidelberg University Hospital @ Heidelberg, Germany
  56. 10/11/23 Xuebing is invited to give a seminar at Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics @ Berlin, Germany
  57. 9/20/23 We received the inaugural Glenn Foundation Discovery Award !
  58. 9/18/23 Our NCI admin supplement grant with Que lab has been funded!
  59. 9/13/23 We welcome visiting student Katherine Da, Biology and CS @ Dartmouth College
  60. 9/4/23 We receive a 2nd grant from Longevity Impetus Grants !
  61. 8/28/23 We welcome graduate student Colin Kalicki for his 1st rotation
  62. 7/31/23 Xuebing gave a talk in the Basic Cardiovascular Sciences (BCVS) conference in Boston
  63. 7/3/23 Our collaborative work with Yuefeng Huang lab was published at Nature Immunology
  64. 7/1/23 We receive a grant from HICCC/Inter/Intra-Programmatic Pilot Program (IPPP) to target lung cancer using CRISPR/Cas13
  65. 5/30-6/4/23 Xuebing, Michael, and Jordan attended 2023 annual RNA meeting at Singapore. Michael won a poster award. Xuebing gave a talk on RPL3L ribosomes.
  66. 4/19/23 Xuebing was invited to visit U of Chicago by postdocs at the Department of Human Genetics
  67. 4/12/23 Our paper titled noncoding translation mitigation has been published online at Nature. See CUIMC news release Illuminating tumor cells with dark proteins
  68. 3/28/23 Our paper on Cas13 collateral activity has been published online at Communications Biology
  69. 3/21/23 Jordan has been selected as one of the two recipients of the 2023 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research! Congratulations, Jordan!
  70. 10/14/22 Xuebing and Michael each gave an invited virtual talk to the Toronto RNA Club
  71. 9/29/22 Xuebing gave an invited virtual seminar at the University of Texas at Dallas
  72. 9/6-9/22 Xuebing and Michael each gave a talk at the 18th translational control conference at CSHL
  73. 8/31/22 Xuebing gave an invited talk at the first FASEB conference on RNA and immunity.
  74. 8/25/22 Congrats Dr. Jordan Kesner! First PhD from the lab!
  75. 7/21/22 Lab releases the 2nd bioRxiv preprint, led by Jordan, Ziheng, and Alex
  76. 6/4/22 Jordan gave a talk at RNA society meeting 2022
  77. 5/25/22 Congrats to Aditi for passing her qualifying exam!
  78. 5/4/22 Xuebing gave an invited talk at Weill Cornell and MSKCC
  79. 5/3/22 Xuebing gave an invited virtual talk at Prevail Therapeutics / Eli Lilly and Company
  80. 4/18/22 Lab welcomes Yang Guo as a postdoctoral research scientist !
  81. 11/30/21 First preprint from the lab, led by Peiguo: RNA-guided cell targeting with CRISPR/RfxCas13d collateral activity in human cells
  82. 11/16/21 Lab welcomes Barnard/Columbia undergraduate student Yue Yin!
  83. 10/14/21 Lab receives Longevity Impetus Grants to study aging!
  84. 9/20/21 Lab welcomes Jonathan Algoo as a rotation student in the Fall!
  85. 6/21/21 Lab receives 2021 Paul A. Marks Scholars Award , which provides unrestricted fund for 3 years
  86. 6/3/21 Lab receives Columbia Precision Medicine Pilot Grant , which supports our study on specialized ribosomes in the heart
  87. 5/27/21 Aditi Trehan became PhD student #2 of the Wu lab!
  88. 5/18/21 Lab receives the 2021 Pershing Square Sohn Prize for Young Investigators in Cancer Research, which supports our study on cancer-targeting using CRISPR/Cas13 and machine learning. Also see CUIMC News
  89. 4/12/21 Aditi Trehan started her rotation in the lab!
  90. 10/6/20 Lab receives NIH Director's New Innovator Award (DP2) for genome-scale study of mRNA noncoding functions using CRISPR/Cas13. Also see CUIMC News
  91. 9/1/20 Zanis joined the lab as a Postdoc!
  92. 8/3/20 The Wu lab welcomes our first PhD student Jordan Kesner!
  93. 6/15/20 Xuebing is named a 2020 Pew-Stewart Scholar for Cancer Research, which will support our study of how cancer cells reprogram mRNA structures on a genome-scale. Also see Columbia HICCC News
  94. 4/1/20 Lab's COVID-19 research highlighted in HICCC news article Columbia University Cancer Researchers in the Fight Against COVID-19
  95. 2/21/20 Xuebing's faculty profile/interview article at Dept. Systems Biology and Cancer Center / HICCC
  96. 2/10/20 Shruti Verma joined the lab from Columbia Engineering
  97. 12/17/19 Xuebing is named Highly Cited Researcher in 2019 by Web of Science
  98. 12/03/19 Michael's AHA postdoc fellowship application was funded. Congratulations!
  99. 11/25/19 Qijin Yin started as a visiting scholar. Welcome Qijin!
  100. 11/01/19 Welcome four new members to the lab: Peiguo Shi (postdoc), Zanis Fang (MS/DSI Scholar), Katherine Liu and Yixuan Li (undergrad)
  101. 10/24/19 Lab moves to our permanent space in P&S
  102. 06/28/19 Xuebing gave a talk at the RNA therapeutics conference at UMass Med School.
  103. 06/14/19 Xuebing gave a video-taped talk at the RNA Society Annual Meeting in Krakow, Poland.
  104. 05/28/19 Ellen Alt joined the lab as a summer research student. Welcome Ellen!
  105. 03/01/19 Michael Murphy joined the lab as a staff associate. Welcome Michael!
  106. 02/19/19 Alexis Aparicio joined the lab as our first Technician. Welcome Alex!
  107. 01/15/19 Ziheng (Calvin) Chen, a graduate student in the BME Master of Science program joined the lab. Welcome Calvin!
  108. 12/07/18 Xuebing won the The RNA Society/Scaringe Young Scientist Award 2019
  109. 11/01/18 Lab officially started!

Careers

Join us

We are seeking motivated students and postdoctoral researchers with a passion for RNA-centric genome research and therapeutics to join our team.

Graduate students and postdocs

Please email xuebing.wu@columbia.edu directly.

Undergraduate students

If you are interested in becoming a graduate student in the lab, you need to first get admitted to one of the PhD programs at Columbia. Once admitted, you can choose to rotate or join the lab.

Email Xuebing