Education:

B.S., Microbiology, Nankai University, 2002

Ph.D., Physical Chemistry, Peking University, 2007

Research Experience:

12/2009 – 06/2013    Postdoctoral fellow, HHMI/UCSF      

07/2007 – 12/2009    UCSF-PKU Joint Postdoctoral Fellow, UCSF

07/2013 – 1/2021    Principal Investigator, Center for Quantitative Biology, PKU

1/2021 – Now        Professor, Institute for Synthetic Biology, SIAT

Research interests:

Our research interests are applying synthetic biology to rationally design and reprogram important cellular signaling networks. We will focus on developing signaling protein tools and engineer custom signaling circuits to understand how the signaling network topology correlate to specific signaling dynamics, and how the spatial, temporal and quantitative changes of signaling dynamics determine cell-fate. We want to introduce these basic network design principles to engineer human immune cells for cell and gene-based cancer immunotherapy.

Selected publications:

1. Si, W., Fan, Y., Qiu, S., Wu, E., Ju, J., Huang, W., Wang, H., Wei, P., Design of Diversified Chimeric Antigen Receptors Through Rational Module Recombination. iScience 2023; 26(4), 106529, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2023.106529.

2. Heltberg, M.#, Jiang, Y.#, Fan, Y.#, Zhang, Z., Nordentoft, M., Lin, W., Qian, L., Ouyang, Q., Jensen, M.*, Wei, P.*, Coupled oscillator cooperativity as a control mechanism in chronobiology. Cell Systems 2023; 14, 382-391.

3. Huang, W., Chen, B., Zhang, J., Gao, P., Fan, Y., Lin, Y.*, Wei, P.*, Dynamic combinatorial regulation modulates TCR and CAR signaling responses in human T cells. Cell Reports 2023; 42, 112663.

4. Qiao, L., Zhang, Z., Zhao, W., Wei, P.*, Zhang, L.*, Network design principle for robust oscillatory behaviors with respect to biological noise. eLife 2022; 11:e76188.

5. Tang, R.#, Fu, Y.#, Gong, B, Fan, Y., Wang, H., Huang, Y., Nie, Z.*, Wei, P.*, A Chimeric Conjugate of Antibody and Programmable DNA Nanoassembly Smartly Activates T Cells for Precise Cancer Cell Targeting. Angew Chem Int Ed 2022; 53, 456-470.

6. Shi, S.*, Si, W., Ouyang X., Wei, P.*, Phase separation in synthetic biology. Quantitative Biology 2021; 9(4): 378‒399. (Review)

7. Qu, Y., Jiang, J., Liu, X., Wei, P., Yang, X., Tang, C., Cell cycle inhibitor Whi5 records environmental information to coordinate growth and division in yeast. Cell Reports 2019; 29,987-994. e5.

8. Si, W., Li, C., Wei, P.*, Synthetic immunology: T-cell engineering and adoptive immunotherapy. Synthetic and Systems Biotechnology 2018; 3 (3), 179-185. (Review)

9. Zhang, Z., Wang, Q., Ke, Y., Liu, S., Ju, J., Lim, A.W., Tang, C., Wei, P.*, Design of Tunable Oscillatory Dynamics in a Synthetic NF-κB Signaling Circuit, Cell Systems 2017; 5, 460-470.

10. Mitchell, A., Wei, P.*, Lim, A.W.*, Oscillatory stress stimulation uncovers an Achilles’ heel of the yeast MAPK signaling network. Science 2015; 350, 1379-1383. (*co-corr. author)