University of Pittsburgh
Wei Du Hematopoiesis Research Lab
Principal Investigator
Wei Du
Associate Professor of Medicine
M.D. in Clinical Medicine
Phone: (412)-623-2211
Email: duw@upmc.edu
Address: 5117 Center Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, USA 15213
Postdoctral Researcher
Jiayang Bao
Jiayang obtained her Bachelor degree and PhD degree from Zhejiang University. Her research was focused on the dual function of UTP3, a member of the ribosome small subunit (SSU) processome. She joined the lab in April, 2025, and will be investigating the role of transcription factor PROX1 in HSC regeneration and aging hematopoiesis.
Email: JIB125@pitt.edu
Address: 5117 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 recently graduated from Sun Yat-sen Unviersity, China, 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: 5117 Center Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA USA 15213
Mostafa Abdelrheem
Mostafa Abdelrheem got his Bachelor and Master degree from Ain Sham University, Cairo. He then moved to Brazil to pursue his PhD degree in neurosciences. Before joining the Du Lab, Mostafa was a postdoc fellow in the Genome Stability Program at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center and studying DNA damage repair. He will be investigating the role of immune receptor and transcription factor in BM microenvironment.
Email: MOA270@pitt.eduu
Address: 5117 Center Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA USA 15213
Graduate student
Jonathan Joseph
Jonathan is a medical student in the lab. His research interest is to investigate whether restoring Cdc42 activity can rejuvanate aged HSC function.
Email: josephj12@upmc.edu
Address: 5117 Center Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, USA 15213
Research Staff
Jessie Gao
Jessie is a research specialist and lab manager 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 is a fresh graduate from Penn State University. He joined the lab in Sep, 2024, and will be investigating the role of TREM1 in HSC activation and leukemia development.
Lab Alumni
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: 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