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Professor Wei Jia

Associate Dean (International Collaboration), School of Chinese Medicine
Chair Professor, Teaching and Research Division
Cheung On Tak Endowed Professor in Chinese Medicine, Teaching and Research Division
Director of Hong Kong Traditional Chinese Medicine Phenome Research Centre

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Professor Wei Jia

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Associate Dean (International Collaboration), School of Chinese Medicine

Cheung On Tak Endowed Professor in Chinese Medicine, Teaching and Research Division

Director of Hong Kong Traditional Chinese Medicine Phenome Research Centre

Adjunct Professor of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University affiliated 6th People's Hospital

Director of the Center for Translational Medicine

 

The long-term research goals of my team are to conduct high-quality, peer-reviewed, grant-funded original research in the areas of systems biology and traditional Chinese medicine in collaboration with clinicians, biologists, bioinformaticians, and epidemiologists.

 

Our research program combines a series of metabolomics, microbiome, bioinformatics, and molecular biology approaches to the identification of cancer etiology in a variety of tumor types and the mechanistic studies of key metabolic pathways that are critically involved during carcinogenesis.

 

Our lab operates a state-of-art metabolomics program that quantitatively profiles endogenous small-molecule metabolites and trace elements from biological specimens including blood, urine, saliva, cell lysates, and tissues of experimental animals and human subjects. The program involves:

 

  • Targeted analysis of metabolic flux and pathways using isotope labeled metabolites and high sensitivity, high throughput LC-MS-MS and GC-MS platforms.
  • Unbiased metabolic profiling and data mining, metabolite annotation and biological interpretation.
  • A fully automated, high-throughput platform that quantitatively profiles microbial metabolome coupled with bioinformatics capable of integrating into metagenomics data to provide the functional translation of the microbiome.
  • Classification and prediction of disease phenotypes based on their unique metabolic signatures for patient stratification and personalized treatment.

 

Research findings

GUT MICROBIAL METABOLITE PROFILING TIC of over 50 bile acids from UPCL-TQMS analysis. Dr. W. Jia's group developed a gut microbial metabolomic method, which covers 200 - 250 small molecule metabolites derived from host-microbiota co-metabolism as well as over 50 bile acid species.

GUT MICROBIAL METABOLITE PROFILING TIC of over 50 bile acids from UPCL-TQMS analysis. Dr. W. Jia's group developed a gut microbial metabolomic method, which covers 200 - 250 small molecule metabolites derived from host-microbiota co-metabolism as well as over 50 bile acid species.

THEABROWNIN FROM PU-ERH TEA ATTENUATES HYPERCHOLESTEROLEMIA Proposed mechanisms for the hypocholesterolemic effect of Pu-erh tea. Dr. W. Jia’s laboratory find that theabrownin alters the gut microbiota in mice and humans, predominantly suppressing microbes associated with bile-salt hydrolase (BSH) activity. Theabrownin increases the levels of ileal conjugated bile acids (BAs) which, in turn, inhibit the intestinal FXR-FGF15 signaling pathway, resulting in increased hepatic production and fecal excretion of BAs, reduced hepatic cholesterol, and decreased lipogenesis.

THEABROWNIN FROM PU-ERH TEA ATTENUATES HYPERCHOLESTEROLEMIA Proposed mechanisms for the hypocholesterolemic effect of Pu-erh tea. Dr. W. Jia’s laboratory find that theabrownin alters the gut microbiota in mice and humans, predominantly suppressing microbes associated with bile-salt hydrolase (BSH) activity. Theabrownin increases the levels of ileal conjugated bile acids (BAs) which, in turn, inhibit the intestinal FXR-FGF15 signaling pathway, resulting in increased hepatic production and fecal excretion of BAs, reduced hepatic cholesterol, and decreased lipogenesis.

A STRATEGY FOR "POLYPHARMACOKINETICS" STUDY OF HERBAL MEDICINES A poly-pharmacokinetic (PolyPK) study of multi-component herbal medicines using a metabolomics strategy. Dr. W. Jia’s laboratory recently proposed a poly-PK strategy to characterize the concentration-time profile and the metabolic response profile of multicomponent herbal medicines using an integrated phytochemical and metabolomics approach.

A STRATEGY FOR "POLYPHARMACOKINETICS" STUDY OF HERBAL MEDICINES A poly-pharmacokinetic (PolyPK) study of multi-component herbal medicines using a metabolomics strategy. Dr. W. Jia’s laboratory recently proposed a poly-PK strategy to characterize the concentration-time profile and the metabolic response profile of multicomponent herbal medicines using an integrated phytochemical and metabolomics approach.

FRUCTOSE IN CANCER METABOLISM Fructose utilization by acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells. Dr. W. Jia’s laboratory discovered a unique ability of cancer cells to switch their energy source from glucose to fructose, when glucose is in short supply.

FRUCTOSE IN CANCER METABOLISM Fructose utilization by acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells. Dr. W. Jia’s laboratory discovered a unique ability of cancer cells to switch their energy source from glucose to fructose, when glucose is in short supply.

Achievements

  • 2016    Natural Science Award Shanghai Municipal Government, China
  • 2007    The Leading Scientist Award, Shanghai, China
  • 2005    Aurora Scholar, Shanghai, China
  • 2004    New Century Talents Award, Ministry of Education, China

 

Publications

Representative Publications (Google Scholar Citations: 29,000, H index: 81, March 2022):

  • Li MC, Wang SL, Li YT, Zhao ML, Kuang JL, Liang DD, Wang JY, Wei ML, Rajani C, Ma XR, Tang YJ, Ren ZX, Chen TL, Zhao AH, Hu C, Shen CX, Jia WP, Liu P, Zheng XJ, Jia W*. Gut microbiota-bile acid crosstalk contributes to the rebound weight gain after calorie restriction in mice. Nature Communications, in press, 2022.
  • Wang SL, Kuang JL, Zhang HW, Chen WL, Zheng XJ, Wang JY, Huang FJ, Ge K, Li MC, Zhao ML, Rajani C, Zhu JS, Zhao AH*, Jia W*. Bile acid – microbiome interaction promotes gastric carcinogenesis. Advanced Science, doi:10.1002/advs.2200263, 2022.
  • Zheng XJ, Chen TL, Zhao AH, Ning ZC, Kuang JL, Wang SL, You YJ, Bao YQ, Ma XJ, Yu HY, Zhou J, Jiang M, Li MC, Wang JY, Ma XH, Zhou SP, Li YT, Ge K, Rajani C, Xie GX, Hu C, Guo YK, Lu AP*, Jia WP*, Jia W*. Hyocholic acid species as novel biomarkers for metabolic disorders. Nature Communications, 12(1):1-11, 2021. Doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-21744-w.
  • Zheng XJ, Chen TL, Jiang RQ, Zhao AH, Wu Q, Kuang JL, Sun DN, Ren ZX, Li MC, Zhao ML, Wang SL,   Bao YQ, Li HT, Hu C, Dong B, Li DF, Wu JY, Xia JL, Wang XM, Lan K, Rajani C, Xie GX, Lu AP, Jia WP*, Jiang CT*, Jia W*. Hyocholic acid species improve glucose homeostasis through a distinct TGR5 and FXR signaling mechanism. Cell Metabolism, 33(4):791-803, 2021. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2020.11.017.
  • Jia W*, Wei ML, Rajani C, Zheng XJ. Targeting the alternative bile acid synthetic pathway for metabolic diseases. Protein & Cell, 12(5):411-425, 2021. doi: 10.1007/s13238-020-00804-9.
  • Huang FJ, Zheng XJ, Ma XH, Jiang RQ, Zhou WY, Zhou SP, Zhang YJ, Lei S, Wang SL, Kuang JL, Han XL, Wei ML, You YJ, Li MC, Li YT, Liang DD, Liu JJ, Chen TL, Yan C, Wei RM, Rajani C, Shen CX, Xie GX, Bian ZX, Li HK, Zhao AH*, Jia W* Theabrownin from Pu-erh tea attenuates hypercholesterolemia via modulation of gut microbiota and bile acid metabolism. Nature Communication, 2019 Oct 31;10(1):4971. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-12896-x. 
  • Jia W*, Xie, GX Jia, WP, Bile acids and microbiome cross-talk and its impact on gastrointestinal inflammation and carcinogenesis. Nature Reviews Gastroenterology and Hepatology, 15(2), 111-128, 2018. doi: 10.1038/nrgastro.2017.119.
  • Chen WL, Wang YY, Zhao AH, Xia L, Xie GX, Su MM, Zhao LJ, Liu JJ, Qu C, Wei RM, Rajani C, Ni Y, Cheng Z, Chen Z, Chen SJ*, Jia W*. Enhanced fructose utilization mediated by SLC2A5 is a unique metabolic feature of acute myeloid leukemia with therapeutic potential, Cancer Cell, 30(5), 779-791, 2016. doi: 10.1016/j.ccell.2016.09.006.
  • Qiu YP, Cai GX, Zhou BS, Li D, Zhao AH, Xie GX, Li HK, Cai SJ, Xie D, Huang CZ, Ge WT, Zhou ZX, Xu L, Jia WP, Zheng S, Yen Y, Jia W*. A distinct metabolic signature of human colorectal cancer with prognostic potential, Clinical Cancer Research, 20(8), 2136-2146, 2014. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-13-1939.
  • Chen WL, Wang JH, Zhao AH, Xu X, Wang YH, Chen TL, Li JM, Mi JQ, Zhu YM, Liu YF, Wang YY, Jin J, Huang H, Wu DP, Li Y, Yan XJ, Yan JS, Li JY, Wang S, Huang XJ, Wang BS, Chen Z, Chen SJ*, Jia W.* A distinct glucose metabolism signature of acute myeloid leukemia with prognostic value. Blood, 124(10), 1645-1654, 2014. doi: 10.1182/blood-2014-02-554204.
  • Yang J, Chen T, Sun L, Zhao Z, Qi X, Zhou K, Cao Y, Wang X, Qiu Y, Su M, Zhao A, Wang P, Yang P, Wu J, Feng G, He L, Jia W*, Wan C.* Potential metabolite markers of schizophrenia. Molecular Psychiatry, 18, 67–78, 2013. doi: 10.1038/mp.2011.131.
  • Zheng XJ, Zhao AH, Xie GX, Chi Y, Zhao LJ, Li HK, Wang CR, Bao YQ, Jia WP, Luther M, Su MM, Nicholson JK, Jia W.* Melamine-induced renal toxicity is mediated by the gut microbiota. Science Translational Medicine, 5(172):172ra22, 2013. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3005114.
  • Nicholson JK, Holmes E, Kinross J, Burcelin R, Gibson G, Jia W, Pettersson S, Host-Gut Microbiota Metabolic Interactions. Science, 336(6086): 1262-7, 2012. doi: 10.1126/science.1223813.
  • Chen TL, Xie GX, Wang XY, Fan J, Qiu YP, Zheng XJ, Qi X., Cao Y, Su MM, Wang XY, Xu LX, Yen Y, Liu P, Jia W.* Serum and urine metabolite profiling reveals potential biomarkers of human hepatocellular carcinoma. Molecular & Cellular Proteomics, 10(7):M110.004945, 2011. doi: 10.1074/mcp.M110.004945.
  • Jia W*, Li H, Zhao L, Nicholson JK. Gut microbiota: a potential new territory for drug targeting. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, 7(2):123-9, 2008. doi: 10.1038/nrd2505.

 

 

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