• Assistant Research Professor
• Assistant Member of the Walther Oncology Center
  
  
• Campus Address: R2 302
• Telephone: (317) 274-7568
• E-mail: wetao@iupui.edu

Training:
• B.Sc., 1982: Wuhan University, Wuhan, P. R. China
• Ph.D., 1988: University of California, Irvine
• Post Doctoral: 1988-1989: Yale University;
• Post Doctoral: 1989-1991: University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario

Area of research:
The major focus of my current research is to identify and functionally characterize proteins important for engraftment, differentiation and migration of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells.

Description and summary of research focus of the laboratory:
Blood cells of multiple lineages (red cells, neutrophils, monocyte/macrophages, mast cells, and B- and T-lymphoid cells) are produced from rare hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells.   Hematopoietic stem cells are defined as cells that have the ability to regenerate themselves (self-renewal) and to give rise to mature cells of all lineages through differentiation.   Understanding the mechanisms that regulate stem cell self-renewal, differentiation and migration is the most important issues in this area since it promises fundamental insight not only into the origin and design of multicellular organisms but also into blood cancer biology.   Using a variety of molecular techniques including microarrays and proteomics, we are identifying and functionally characterizing regulatory proteins (including small GTPases and nuclear transcriptional factors) that are important for the self-renewal, differentiation, and migration of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells.

Publications
Knezevich, S.R., McFadden, D.E., Tao, W., Lim, J.F., and Sorensen P.H.   (1998)   A novel ETV6-NTRK3 gene fusion in congenital fibrosarcoma.    Nature Genetics   18(2):184-187.

Williams, D.A., Tao, W., Yang, F., Kim, C., Gu, Y., Mansfield, P., Levine, J.E., Petryniak, B., Derrow, C.W., Harris, C., Jia, B., Zheng, Y., Ambruso, D., Lowe, J.B., Atkinson, S.J., Dinauer, M.C., and Boxer, L.A.   (2000)   Dominant negative mutation of the hematopoietic-specific rho GTPase, rac2, is associated with a human phagocyte immunodeficiency.   Blood   (Plenary paper) 96(5):1646-1654.

Tao, W., Filippi, M-D., Bailey, J.R., Atkinson, S.J., Connors, B., Evan, A., and Williams, D.A.   (2002)   The TRQQKRP motif located near the C-terminus of Rac2 is essential for its biological functions and intracellular localization.   Blood 100(5):1679-1688.

Tao, W., Hangoc, G., Hawes, J.W., Si, Y., Cooper, S., and Broxmeyer, H.E.   (2003)   Profiling of differentially expressed apoptosis-related genes by cDNA arrays in human cord blood CD34 + cells treated with etoposide.   Experimental Hematology 31:251-260.

Tao, W., Wang, M., Voss, E.D., Cocklin, R.R., Smith, J.A., Cooper, S., and Broxmeyer, H.E.   (2004)   Comparative proteomic analysis of human CD34 + stem/progenitor cells and mature CD15 + myeloid cells.   Stem Cells (in press).

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