Bruce Wang, MD

Associate Prof In Residence

My lab studies how the different cell types in the liver, in particular the hepatocyte, are generated during development, patterned and maintained during adulthood, and regenerate after injury. Our long-term goals are to improve the understanding of liver disease pathophysiology and develop novel methods of treatment for liver diseases, including cell replacement therapy. Currently, we have two major research focuses: 1) understanding the biology of adult hepatocyte stem cells and 2) developing a liver cell atlas. We take innovative and integrated approaches to address these two areas using the tools of stem cell biology, developmental biology, genomics and tissue engineering.

I also study the porphyrias, a group of inherited diseases related to defects in heme synthesis pathway. I am a member of the Porphyrias Consortium, a NIH sponsored Rare Disease Clinical Research Consortium. The purpose of the network is to integrate translational studies of the porphyrias with clinical trials testing new therapeutics.

Education
Postdoctoral Fellow, 2016 - Developmental Biology (Lab of Roel Nusse), Stanford University / HHMI
Fellowship, 2011 - Division of Gastroenterology, University of California San Francisco
Residency, 2009 - Department of Medicine, University of California San Francisco
M.D., 2007 - School of Medicine, University of California San Francisco
BAS, 2000 - Biological Sciences and Philosophy, Stanford University
Honors and Awards
  • Career Award for Medical Scientists, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, 2016
  • Dean's Prize in Research, UCSF School of Medicine, 2006
Websites
Publications

  1. Levy C, Naik H, Overbey J, Hedstrom K, Wang K, McDonough C, Freeman M, Keel SB, Erwin AL, Dickey AK, Leaf RK, Quigley J, Mazepa M, Wang B, Phillips J, Parker C, McGuire B, Kazamel M, Bonkovsky H, Rudnick S, Anderson KE, Moghe A, Thapar M, Saberi B, Wheeden K, Desnick R, Balwani M, Porphyrias Consortium of the Rare Diseases Clinical Research Network. Liver involvement in a large cohort of patients with erythropoietic protoporphyria or X-linked protoporphyria. Hepatology communications 2025. PMID: 39969427


  2. Kim JJ, Kurial SNT, Choksi PK, Nunez M, Lunow-Luke T, Bartel J, Driscoll J, Her CL, Dhillon S, Yue W, Murti A, Mao T, Ramos JN, Tiyaboonchai A, Grompe M, Mattis AN, Syed SM, Wang BM, Maher JJ, Roll GR, Willenbring H. AAV capsid prioritization in normal and steatotic human livers maintained by machine perfusion. Nature biotechnology 2025. PMID: 39881029


  3. Bhasuran B, Schmolly K, Kapoor Y, Jayakumar NL, Doan R, Amin J, Meninger S, Cheng N, Deering R, Anderson K, Beaven SW, Wang B, Rudrapatna VA. Reducing diagnostic delays in acute hepatic porphyria using health records data and machine learning. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA 2024. PMID: 38946554


  4. Sardh E, Balwani M, Rees DC, Anderson KE, Jia G, Sweetser MT, Wang B. Long-term follow-up of givosiran treatment in patients with acute intermittent porphyria from a phase 1/2, 48-month open-label extension study. Orphanet journal of rare diseases 2024. PMID: 39363243


  5. Alkhani A, Baskaran S, Murti A, Rapp B, Levy CS, Wang B, Nijagal A. Perinatal liver inflammation is associated with persistent elevation of CXCL10 and its canonical receptor CXCR3 on common myeloid progenitors. bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology 2024. PMID: 39229070


  6. Liu S, Ezran C, Wang MFZ, Li Z, Awayan K, Tabula Microcebus Consortium, Long JZ, De Vlaminck I, Wang S, Epelbaum J, Kuo CS, Terrien J, Krasnow MA, Ferrell JE. An organism-wide atlas of hormonal signaling based on the mouse lemur single-cell transcriptome. Nature communications 2024. PMID: 38467625


  7. Lissing M, Wang B, Wahlin S. Liver transplantation and primary liver cancer in porphyria. Liver international : official journal of the International Association for the Study of the Liver 2024. PMID: 38456621


  8. COVID Tissue Atlas Consortium, Granados AA, Bucher S, Song H, Agrawal A, Chen AT, Peng T, Neff N, Pisco AO, Huang F, Wang B. Single-nuclei characterization of pervasive transcriptional signatures across organs in response to COVID-19. eLife 2023. PMID: 37830426


  9. Bhasuran B, Schmolly K, Kapoor Y, Jayakumar NL, Doan R, Amin J, Meninger S, Cheng N, Deering R, Anderson K, Beaven SW, Wang B, Rudrapatna VA. Reducing diagnostic delays in Acute Hepatic Porphyria using electronic health records data and machine learning: a multicenter development and validation study. medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences 2023. PMID: 37693437


  10. Levy C, Dickey AK, Wang B, Thapar M, Naik H, Keel SB, Saberi B, Beaven SW, Rudnick SR, Elmariah SB, Erwin AL, Goddu RJ, Hedstrom K, Leaf RK, Kazamel M, Mazepa M, Philpotts LL, Quigley J, Raef H, Ungar J, Anderson KE, Balwani M, Porphyrias Consortium of the Rare Diseases Clinical Network.. Evidence based consensus guidelines for diagnosis and management of Protoporphyria-Related liver dysfunction in erythropoietic protoporphyria and X-Linked protoporphyria. Hepatology (Baltimore, Md.) 2023. PMID: 37505211


  11. Wang B, Bonkovsky HL, Lim JK, Balwani M. AGA Clinical Practice Update on Diagnosis and Management of Acute Hepatic Porphyrias: Expert Review. Gastroenterology 2023. PMID: 36642627


  12. Liu J, Tran V, Vemuri VNP, Byrne A, Borja M, Kim YJ, Agarwal S, Wang R, Awayan K, Murti A, Taychameekiatchai A, Wang B, Emanuel G, He J, Haliburton J, Oliveira Pisco A, Neff NF. Concordance of MERFISH spatial transcriptomics with bulk and single-cell RNA sequencing. Life science alliance 2022. PMID: 36526371


  13. Balwani M, Naik H, Overbey JR, Bonkovsky HL, Bissell DM, Wang B, Phillips JD, Desnick RJ, Anderson KE. A pilot study of oral iron therapy in erythropoietic protoporphyria and X-linked protoporphyria. Molecular genetics and metabolism reports 2022. PMID: 36406817


  14. Brenner DM, Brandt LJ, Fenster M, Hamilton MJ, Kamboj AK, Oxentenko AS, Wang B, Chey WD. Rare, Overlooked, or Underappreciated Causes of Recurrent Abdominal Pain: A Primer for Gastroenterologists. Clinical gastroenterology and hepatology : the official clinical practice journal of the American Gastroenterological Association 2022. PMID: 36180010


  15. Zhang MJ, Hou K, Dey KK, Sakaue S, Jagadeesh KA, Weinand K, Taychameekiatchai A, Rao P, Pisco AO, Zou J, Wang B, Gandal M, Raychaudhuri S, Pasaniuc B, Price AL. Polygenic enrichment distinguishes disease associations of individual cells in single-cell RNA-seq data. Nature genetics 2022. PMID: 36050550


  16. Dickey AK, Naik H, Keel SB, Levy C, Beaven SW, Elmariah SB, Erwin AL, Goddu RJ, Hedstrom K, Leaf RK, Kazamel M, Mazepa M, Philpotts LL, Quigley J, Raef H, Rudnick SR, Saberi B, Thapar M, Ungar J, Wang B, Balwani M, Porphyrias Consortium of the Rare Diseases Clinical Research Network. Evidence-based consensus guidelines for the diagnosis and management of erythropoietic protoporphyria and X-linked protoporphyria. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology 2022. PMID: 36041558


  17. Wang B, Ventura P, Takase KI, Thapar M, Cassiman D, Kubisch I, Liu S, Sweetser MT, Balwani M. Disease burden in patients with acute hepatic porphyria: experience from the phase 3 ENVISION study. Orphanet journal of rare diseases 2022. PMID: 36028858


  18. Song H, Bucher S, Rosenberg K, Tsui M, Burhan D, Hoffman D, Cho SJ, Rangaswami A, Breese M, Leung S, Ventura MVP, Sweet-Cordero EA, Huang FW, Nijagal A, Wang B. Single-cell analysis of hepatoblastoma identifies tumor signatures that predict chemotherapy susceptibility using patient-specific tumor spheroids. Nature communications 2022. PMID: 36008377


  19. Tabula Sapiens Consortium*, Jones RC, Karkanias J, Krasnow MA, Pisco AO, Quake SR, Salzman J, Yosef N, Bulthaup B, Brown P, Harper W, Hemenez M, Ponnusamy R, Salehi A, Sanagavarapu BA, Spallino E, Aaron KA, Concepcion W, Gardner JM, Kelly B, Neidlinger N, Wang Z, Crasta S, Kolluru S, Morri M, Pisco AO, Tan SY, Travaglini KJ, Xu C, Alcántara-Hernández M, Almanzar N, Antony J, Beyersdorf B, Burhan D, Calcuttawala K, Carter MM, Chan CKF, Chang CA, Chang S, Colville A, Crasta S, Culver RN, Cvijovic I, D'Amato G, Ezran C, Galdos FX, Gillich A, Goodyer WR, Hang Y, Hayashi A, Houshdaran S, Huang X, Irwin JC, Jang S, Juanico JV, Kershner AM, Kim S, Kiss B, Kolluru S, Kong W, Kumar ME, Kuo AH, Leylek R, Li B, Loeb GB, Lu WJ, Mantri S, Markovic M, McAlpine PL, de Morree A, Morri M, Mrouj K, Mukherjee S, Muser T, Neuhöfer P, Nguyen TD, Perez K, Phansalkar R, Pisco AO, Puluca N, Qi Z, Rao P, Raquer-McKay H, Schaum N, Scott B, Seddighzadeh B, Segal J, Sen S, Sikandar S, Spencer SP, Steffes LC, Subramaniam VR, Swarup A, Swift M, Travaglini KJ, Van Treuren W, Trimm E, Veizades S, Vijayakumar S, Vo KC, Vorperian SK, Wang W, Weinstein HNW, Winkler J, Wu TTH, Xie J, Yung AR, Zhang Y, Detweiler AM, Mekonen H, Neff NF, Sit RV, Tan M, Yan J, Bean GR, Charu V, Forgó E, Martin BA, Ozawa MG, Silva O, Tan SY, Toland A, Vemuri VNP, Afik S, Awayan K, Botvinnik OB, Byrne A, Chen M, Dehghannasiri R, Detweiler AM, Gayoso A, Granados AA, Li Q, Mahmoudabadi G, McGeever A, de Morree A, Olivieri JE, Park M, Pisco AO, Ravikumar N, Salzman J, Stanley G, Swift M, Tan M, Tan W, Tarashansky AJ, Vanheusden R, Vorperian SK, Wang P, Wang S, Xing G, Xu C, Yosef N, Alcántara-Hernández M, Antony J, Chan CKF, Chang CA, Colville A, Crasta S, Culver R, Dethlefsen L, Ezran C, Gillich A, Hang Y, Ho PY, Irwin JC, Jang S, Kershner AM, Kong W, Kumar ME, Kuo AH, Leylek R, Liu S, Loeb GB, Lu WJ, Maltzman JS, Metzger RJ, de Morree A, Neuhöfer P, Perez K, Phansalkar R, Qi Z, Rao P, Raquer-McKay H, Sasagawa K, Scott B, Sinha R, Song H, Spencer SP, Swarup A, Swift M, Travaglini KJ, Trimm E, Veizades S, Vijayakumar S, Wang B, Wang W, Winkler J, Xie J, Yung AR, Artandi SE, Beachy PA, Clarke MF, Giudice LC, Huang FW, Huang KC, Idoyaga J, Kim SK, Krasnow M, Kuo CS, Nguyen P, Quake SR, Rando TA, Red-Horse K, Reiter J, Relman DA, Sonnenburg JL, Wang B, Wu A, Wu SM, Wyss-Coray T. The Tabula Sapiens: A multiple-organ, single-cell transcriptomic atlas of humans. 2022. PMID: 35549404


  20. Pálovics R, Keller A, Schaum N, Tan W, Fehlmann T, Borja M, Kern F, Bonanno L, Calcuttawala K, Webber J, McGeever A, Tabula Muris Consortium, Luo J, Pisco AO, Karkanias J, Neff NF, Darmanis S, Quake SR, Wyss-Coray T. Molecular hallmarks of heterochronic parabiosis at single-cell resolution. Nature 2022. PMID: 35236985


  21. Vorperian SK, Moufarrej MN, Tabula Sapiens Consortium, Quake SR. Cell types of origin of the cell-free transcriptome. Nature biotechnology 2022. PMID: 35132263


  22. Song H, Weinstein HNW, Allegakoen P, Wadsworth MH, Xie J, Yang H, Castro EA, Lu KL, Stohr BA, Feng FY, Carroll PR, Wang B, Cooperberg MR, Shalek AK, Huang FW. Single-cell analysis of human primary prostate cancer reveals the heterogeneity of tumor-associated epithelial cell states. 2022. PMID: 35013146


  23. Kathiriya JJ, Wang C, Zhou M, Brumwell A, Cassandras M, Le Saux CJ, Cohen M, Alysandratos KD, Wang B, Wolters P, Matthay M, Kotton DN, Chapman HA, Peng T. Human alveolar type 2 epithelium transdifferentiates into metaplastic KRT5+ basal cells. 2021. PMID: 34969962


  24. Olivieri JE, Dehghannasiri R, Wang PL, Jang S, de Morree A, Tan SY, Ming J, Ruohao Wu A, Tabula Sapiens Consortium, Quake SR, Krasnow MA, Salzman J. RNA splicing programs define tissue compartments and cell types at single-cell resolution. 2021. PMID: 34515025


  25. Wang B. Novel treatment options for acute hepatic porphyrias. Current opinion in gastroenterology 2021. PMID: 33769375


  26. Wang B. The acute hepatic porphyrias. Translational gastroenterology and hepatology 2021. PMID: 33824928


  27. Liang B, Zhou Y, Qian M, Xu M, Wang J, Zhang Y, Song X, Wang H, Lin S, Ren C, Monga SP, Wang B, Evert M, Chen Y, Chen X, Huang Z, Calvisi DF, Chen X. TBX3 functions as a tumor suppressor downstream of activated CTNNB1 mutants during hepatocarcinogenesis. 2021. PMID: 33577921


  28. Russell JP, Lim X, Santambrogio A, Yianni V, Kemkem Y, Wang B, Fish M, Haston S, Grabek A, Hallang S, Lodge EJ, Patist AL, Schedl A, Mollard P, Nusse R, Andoniadou CL. Pituitary stem cells produce paracrine WNT signals to control the expansion of their descendant progenitor cells. 2021. PMID: 33399538


  29. Saberi B, Naik H, Overbey JR, Erwin AL, Anderson KE, Bissell DM, Bonkovsky HL, Phillips JD, Wang B, K Singal A, M McGuire B, Desnick RJ, Balwani M. Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Acute Hepatic Porphyrias: Results from the Longitudinal Study of the U.S. Porphyrias Consortium. Hepatology (Baltimore, Md.) 2020. PMID: 32681675


  30. Dickey AK, Quick C, Ducamp S, Zhu Z, Feng YA, Naik H, Balwani M, Anderson KE, Lin X, Phillips JE, Rebeiz L, Bonkovsky HL, McGuire BM, Wang B, Chasman DI, Smoller JW, Fleming MD, Christiani DC. Evidence in the UK Biobank for the underdiagnosis of erythropoietic protoporphyria. 2020. PMID: 32873934


  31. . A single-cell transcriptomic atlas characterizes ageing tissues in the mouse. Nature 2020. PMID: 32669714


  32. Schaum N, Lehallier B, Hahn O, Pálovics R, Hosseinzadeh S, Lee SE, Sit R, Lee DP, Losada PM, Zardeneta ME, Fehlmann T, Webber JT, McGeever A, Calcuttawala K, Zhang H, Berdnik D, Mathur V, Tan W, Zee A, Tan M. Ageing hallmarks exhibit organ-specific temporal signatures. Nature 2020. PMID: 32669715


  33. Balwani M, Sardh E, Ventura P, Peiró PA, Rees DC, Stölzel U, Bissell DM, Bonkovsky HL, Windyga J, Anderson KE, Parker C, Silver SM, Keel SB, Wang JD, Stein PE, Harper P, Vassiliou D, Wang B, Phillips J, Ivanova A, Langendonk JG, Kauppinen R, Minder E, Horie Y, Penz C, Chen J, Liu S, Ko JJ, Sweetser MT, Garg P, Vaishnaw A, Kim JB, Simon AR, Gouya L. Phase 3 Trial of RNAi Therapeutic Givosiran for Acute Intermittent Porphyria. The New England journal of medicine 2020. PMID: 32521132


  34. Alkhani A, Levy CS, Tsui M, Rosenberg KA, Polovina K, Mattis AN, Mack M, Van Dyken S, Wang BM, Maher JJ, Nijagal A. Ly6cLo non-classical monocytes promote resolution of rhesus rotavirus-mediated perinatal hepatic inflammation. Scientific Reports 2020. PMID: 32346042


  35. Xu M, Wang H, Wang J, Burhan D, Shang R, Wang P, Zhou Y, Li R, Liang B, Evert K, Utpatel K, Xu Z, Song X, Che L, Calvisi DF, Wang B, Chen X, Zeng Y, Chen X. mTORC2 Signaling Is Necessary for Timely Liver Regeneration after Partial Hepatectomy. The American journal of pathology 2020. PMID: 32035060


  36. Naik H, Overbey JR, Montgomery GH, Winkel G, Balwani M, Anderson KE, Bissell DM, Bonkovsky HL, Phillips JD, Wang B, McGuire B, Keel S, Levy C, Erwin A, Desnick RJ. Evaluating the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System scales in acute intermittent porphyria. Genetics in medicine : official journal of the American College of Medical Genetics 2019. PMID: 31690837


  37. Naik H, Overbey JR, Desnick RJ, Anderson KE, Bissell DM, Bloomer J, Bonkovsky HL, Phillips JD, Wang B, Singal A, Balwani M. Evaluating quality of life tools in North American patients with erythropoietic protoporphyria and X-linked protoporphyria. JIMD reports 2019. PMID: 31741822


  38. Qiao Y, Wang J, Karagoz E, Liang B, Song X, Shang R, Evert K, Xu M, Che L, Evert M, Calvisi DF, Tao J, Wang B, Monga SP, Chen X. Axis inhibition protein 1 (Axin1) Deletion-Induced Hepatocarcinogenesis Requires Intact ß-Catenin but Not Notch Cascade in Mice. Hepatology (Baltimore, Md.) 2019. PMID: 30737831


  39. Zhao L, Jin Y, Donahue K, Tsui M, Fish M, Logan CY, Wang B, Nusse R. Tissue Repair in the Mouse Liver Following Acute Carbon Tetrachloride Depends on Injury-Induced Wnt/ß-Catenin Signaling. Hepatology (Baltimore, Md.) 2019. PMID: 30762896


  40. Wang B, Rudnick S, Cengia B, Bonkovsky HL. Acute Hepatic Porphyrias: Review and Recent Progress. Hepatology communications 2018. PMID: 30766957


  41. Peng WC, Logan CY, Fish M, Anbarchian T, Aguisanda F, Álvarez-Varela A, Wu P, Jin Y, Zhu J, Li B, Grompe M, Wang B, Nusse R. Inflammatory Cytokine TNFa Promotes the Long-Term Expansion of Primary Hepatocytes in 3D Culture. Cell 2018. PMID: 30500539


  42. . Single-cell transcriptomics of 20 mouse organs creates a Tabula Muris. Nature 2018. PMID: 30283141


  43. Balwani M, Wang B, Anderson KE, Bloomer JR, Bissell DM, Bonkovsky HL, Phillips JD, Desnick RJ. Acute hepatic porphyrias: Recommendations for evaluation and long-term management. Hepatology (Baltimore, Md.) 2017. PMID: 28605040


  44. Balwani M, Naik H, Anderson KE, Bissell DM, Bloomer J, Bonkovsky HL, Phillips JD, Overbey JR, Wang B, Singal AK, Liu LU, Desnick RJ. Clinical, Biochemical, and Genetic Characterization of North American Patients With Erythropoietic Protoporphyria and X-linked Protoporphyria. JAMA dermatology 2017. PMID: 28614581


  45. Gou EW, Balwani M, Bissell DM, Bloomer JR, Bonkovsky HL, Desnick RJ, Naik H, Phillips JD, Singal AK, Wang B, Keel S, Anderson KE. Pitfalls in Erythrocyte Protoporphyrin Measurement for Diagnosis and Monitoring of Protoporphyrias. Clinical chemistry 2015. PMID: 26482161


  46. Wang B, Zhao L, Fish M, Logan CY, Nusse R. Self-renewing diploid Axin2(+) cells fuel homeostatic renewal of the liver. Nature 2015. PMID: 26245375


  47. Bissell DM, Wang B. Acute Hepatic Porphyria. Journal of clinical and translational hepatology 2015. PMID: 26357631


  48. Cascino MD, McNabb B, Gardner DG, Woeber KA, Fox AN, Wang B, Fix OK. Acute liver failure with thyrotoxicosis treated with liver transplantation. Volume 19 of Issue 3. Endocrine practice : official journal of the American College of Endocrinology and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists 2013. PMID: 23337142


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