Wei Du Hematopoiesis Research Lab

Wei Du

Associate Professor of Medicine

Blood Cancer United (formerly Leukemia & Lymphoma Society; LLS) Scholar (link)

Elected Member, American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) 2026 (link)

Associate Editor, JCI Insight (link)

Editorial Board Memeber, Blood Advances (link)

M.D. in Clinical Medicine

Ph.D. in Pediatric Oncology, Tohoku University, Japan

Phone: (412)-648-3124

Email: wed41@pitt.edu

Address: The Assembly, 5051 Center Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, USA 15213

Google Scholar, LinkedIn, ResearchGate

Jiayang Bao

Jiayang obtained her Bachelor degree and PhD degree from Zhejiang University, where her research was focused on the dual function of UTP3, a member of the ribosome small subunit (SSU) processome. She joined the Du lab in April, 2025, and is currently investigating the role of transcription factor and immune receptors in HSC regeneration and aging hematopoiesis.

Email: JIB125@pitt.edu

Address: 5051 Center Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA USA 15213

Peizhong Qin

Peizhong obtained his Bachelor degree from Jiangxi University of Chinese Medicine and PhD degree from Huazhong University of Science and Technology. His research was focused on intestinal stem cell biology. He joined the lab in April 2026. His current research interests include the role of FA proteins in digestive system; and SIRT activation in HSCs.

Email: PEQ11@pitt.edu

Address: 5051 Center Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA USA 15213

Jian Xu

Jian Xu received his B.S. degree in Pharmacy from Guangdong Medical Unviersity, M.S. degree from South China Normal Univeristy. He graduated from Sun Yat-Sen Unviersity, China in 2023, major in Pharmacology. His current research interests include: 1) the role of DNA damage repair protein CtIP in fetal hematopoiesis; 2) BM macrophage in regulating hematopoiesis; 3) Transcription factor PROX1 in BM microenvironment.

Email: xuj15@upmc.edu

Address: 5051 Center Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA USA 15213

Anton Mahama

Tony is a MPGP graduate studentat Univeristy of Pittsburgh. He is investigating the role of immune receptor NLRP12 in aging hematopoiesis & leukemogenesis.

Email: ANM915@pitt.edu

Address: 5051 Center Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, USA 15213

Oliver Freund

Oliver is a undergraduate student in the lab. He is assisting virus production, cytokine profiling and western blotting analysis.

Email: OJF7@pitt.edu

Address: 5051 Center Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, USA 15213

Rocky Peddapally

Rocky Peddapally is a undergraduate student in the lab. He is assisting protein extraction and sample preparation using hematopoietic stem cells for Mass Spec analysis.

Email: RRP80@pitt.edu

Address: 5051 Center Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, USA 15213

Jessie Gao

Jessie is a research specialist in the lab. She is responsible for the mouse colony maintenance, and oversees the Du lab duties. Jessie is a very talented cook and likes to try different types of food during her spare time.

Logan Sund

Logan graduated from Penn State University in 2024. He oversees lab operation, also assistants postdoc's experiments, including mouse bone marrow cell isolation, flow cytometry analysis, mesenchymal stromal cell culture and so on.

Hui Wang

Hui joined the lab in July, 2025. She is assisting immunofluorescence staining, immunoblotting analysis and tissue culture.

Anthony Zhu

Anthony graduated from U Pitt recently and joined the lab in July, 2023. He now is a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University.

Jayme Jieun Hong

Jayme Jieun Hong is an experiences research scientist, specialized in cell cuclutre, cell-based assays, flow cytometry, ELISA. She joined the lab in 2024.

Emily Wolff

Emily graduated from U Pitt recently and joined the lab in May, 2023. She started her undergraduate research in the Du Lab since 2021, now is a graduate student at Penn State University.

Other Lab Alumni

Postdocs & Graduate Students

Neha Atale, former postdoctoral fellow (2021-2022), now postdoctoral fellow @ U Pitt

Qiqi Lin, former master student (2018~2021), now graduate student @ UC Riverside

Zhilin Ma, former master student (2018~2020), now graduate student @ Notre Dame University

Junjie Wang, former postdoctoral fellow (2018-2019), now professor @ Suzhou University

Yibo Li, former master student (2015~2017), now Research Specialist @ Southern Methodist University

Xiaomei Li, former visiting scholar (2019), Now professor @ Guangzhou University

Xue Li, former visiting scholar (2018), Now professor @ South China Normal University

Undergraduate Students:

PITT: Isabel Nase, Iman Azeez; Vehaan Sabharwal; Annemarie Nguyen

WVU: Umesh Nepali; Quinn Hope; Evan Ballard; Cammie Cochran;Yumi Tze, Yomna Meky; Christina White; Manar Chowdhury; Morgan Zopp; Zachary Sherman