Dr. Wu was born and raised in Iowa. He attended college at Washington University in St. Louis before returning to Iowa to obtain his MD and PhD degrees. He performed post-graduate training in New York and Philadelphia. The Wu lab is dedicated to understanding what triggers the development of immune responses in the central nervous system during health and disease. In particular the lab is focused on dendritic cells, a special class of immune cells capable of initiating a wide spectrum of lymphocyte responses. Several lines of evidence suggest that dendritic cells are critical during the pathogenesis of central nervous system inflammation. This is particularly relevant to diseases such as multiple sclerosis and its animal model, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. Ongoing research is aimed at understanding how dendritic cells are capable of initiating autoimmune reactions targeting the brain and spinal cord.

Medical Training

Dr. Wu is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis with a B.A. in Biology. He received his MD and PhD degrees as a part of the NIH Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of Iowa. His PhD thesis work under the mentorship of Dr. Stanley Perlman investigated the mechanisms of virus-induced central nervous system demyelination. While a graduate student, he was a recipient of a National Research Service Award.

Dr. Wu began his post-graduate medical education as an intern in Internal Medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Subsequently, he completed a Neurology residency in 2005 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. During his residency he was awarded a Penn Pearls Award in recognition of his excellence in medical student education. He received several awards from the North American Neuro-Ophthalmology Association for research on visual outcome studies in multiple sclerosis led by Dr. Laura Balcer.

Following residency, Dr. Wu trained as a Multiple Sclerosis fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. He received a National Multiple Sclerosis Society postdoctoral fellowship from 2005-2008, which supported postdoctoral research training in autoimmunity under the guidance of Dr. Terri Laufer at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2008 he was the recipient of a K08 career development award from the NIH for his work investigating the role of dendritic cells in an animal model for MS. That same year he was appointed Instructor in the department of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Selected Publications

Wu, G.F. and Laufer, T.M. The Role of Dendritic Cells in Multiple Sclerosis. Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep. 7(3):245-252, May, 2007.

Wu, G.F., Schwartz, E.D., Lei, T., Souza, A., Mishra, S., Jacobs, D.A, Markowitz, C.E., Galetta, S.L., Nano-Schiavi, M.L., Desiderio, L.M., Cutter, G.R., Udupa, J.K. and Balcer, L.J. Relation of Vision to Global and Regional Brain MRI in Multiple Sclerosis. Neurology 69(23):2128-2135, December, 2007.

Wilson, E.H., Harris, T.H., Mrass, P., John, B., Tait, E.D., Wu, G.F., Pepper, M., Wherry, E.J., Dzierzinkski, F., Roos, D., Haydon, P.G., Laufer, T.M., Weninger, W., Hunter, C.A. Behavior of parasite specific effector CD8+ T cells in the CNS and visualization of a kinesis-associated system of reticular fibers during infection Immunity. 2009 Feb 20; 30 (2): 300-11.

Laufer T. M. and Wu, G.F. Treating MS: getting to know the two birds in the bush. J Clin Invest. 2009 July; 119 (7): 1852. Commentary.

Wu, G.F., Schmidt, M., Corbo, E., Jordan, M.S., Laufer, T.M., Brow, E.J., and Maltzman, J.S. Conditional deletion of SLP-76 in mature T cells abrogates peripheral immune responses. Submitted (Journal of Immunology).