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Gary D. Wu, MD

Ferdinand G. Weisbrod Professor in Gastroenterology

  • Director, Human-Microbial Analytic and Repository Core Facility, NIH Center for Molecular Studies in Digestive and Liver Diseases (P30 DK50306), Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
  • Associate Director NIH Training Grant in Gastrointestinal Sciences, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania (T32-DK07066)
  • Co-Director, Penn-CHOP Microbiome Program , Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
  • Director, Microbial Culture and Metabolomics Core for the PennCHOP Microbiome Program, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
  • Director, Penn Center for Nutritional Science and Medicine, Pereleman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
  • Co-Vice Chief for Research, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
  • Co-Associate Director, UPENN Digestive and Liver Center

Department: Medicine
Division: Gastroenterology


Graduate Group Affiliations


Contact Information

421 Curie Boulevard
915 Biomedical Research Building II/III


Philadelphia, PA 19104
Office: 215-898-0158
Fax: 215-573-2024


I3H Keywords

  • Allergy, Asthma, and Other Inflammatory Diseases
  • Immune System Development and Function in Host Homeostasis

Publications

Pubmed Link


Links


Education

  • A.B. (Chemistry)
    Cornell University, 1980
  • M.D.
    Northwestern University Medical School, 1986
  • M.A. (Honorary)
    University of Pennsylvania, 2002

Post-Graduate Training

  • Intern
    University of Minnesota Hospital, 1986 - 1987
  • Resident
    University of Minnesota Hospital, 1987 - 1989
  • Fellow (Gastroenterology)
    University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1989 - 1992

Certifications

  • American Board of Internal Medicine, 1989
  • American Board of Gastroenterology, 1991

Description of Research Expertise

Research Program
Diet, the Gut Microbiome, and Host Metabolism

Program Summary
Gary D. Wu, MD is the Ferdinand G. Weisbrod Professor in Gastroenterology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. He is the Vice Chief for Research in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Director of the Penn Center for Nutritional Science and Medicine, Co-Director of both the PennCHOP Microbiome Program and Associate Director of the NIH Center for Molecular Studies in Digestive and Liver Disease. He was the inaugural Director and Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board for the American Gastroenterological Association’s Center for Gut Microbiome Research and Education and is an elected member of both the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. As a physician-scientist with knowledge of human physiology and biochemistry who has a particular interest in the impact of diet on the gut microbiome and its metabolome, Dr. Wu has a significant level of administrative experience in multidisciplinary team research projects involving biomedical informatics, computational biology, and biostatistics. He has published numerous manuscripts in high impact journals such as Science, Nature, Nature Microbiology, and Cell Host & Microbe.

Lab personnel:
Lillian Chau, MS
Elliot Friedman, PhD
Dylan Curry, MS
Lindsey Herman, BS
Margaret Pichardo, MD, PhD
Jacob Cao
Arthur Li

Description of ITMAT Expertise

Impact of diet on the structure and function of the gut microbiome and its resultant effects on host metabolism. Current areas of interest include host nitrogen balance as well as immune and intestinal epithelial function.

Selected Publications

  • Harling LC, Hecht AL, Meyer F, Wu GD. : Revisiting nitrogen assimilation strategies in the mammalian gut: lessons from Enterobacteriaceae as pathobiont models and a challenge to the limitation paradigm Arch Microbiol 207 : 203, Jul 2025
  • Bloom PP, Garrett WS, Penniston KL, Winkler MH, Hazen SL, Agudelo J, Suryavanshi M, Babiker A, Dodd D, Fischbach MA, Huang KC, Huttenhower C, Joe B, Kalantar-Zadeh K, Knight R, Miller AW, Rabb H, Srivastava A, Tang WHW, Turnbaugh PJ, Walker AW, Wilck N, Xu J, Yang T, Himmelfarb J, Redinbo MR, Wu GD, Woodworth MH, Ackerman AL, Winter S, Rinschen MM, Hassan HA, Biruete A, Anderson AH, Pluznick JL. : Microbiota and kidney disease: the road ahead Nat Rev Nephrol Jul 2025
  • Ren X, Clark RM, Bansah DA, Varner EN, Tiffany CR, Jaswal K, Geary JH, Todd OA, Winkelman JD, Friedman ES, Jarrett RN, Zemel BS, Wu GD, Zackular JP, DePas WH, Behnsen J, Palmer LD. : Amino acid competition shapes Acinetobacter baumannii gut carriage Cell Host Microbe Jul 2025
  • Hewlett KK, PeBenito A, Hecht AL, Tiffany C, Tanes C, Glover RC, Fawad JA, Friedman ES, Reynolds JC, Bittinger K, Lewis JD, Wu GD, Ahuja NK, Zackular JP. : Dietary Fiber Modulates the Window of Susceptibility to Clostridioides difficile Infection Gastroenterology May 2025
  • Barekat K, Ghosh S, Herrmann C, Keat K, Assenmacher CA, Tanes C, Wilson N, Sengupta A, Das US, Joshi R, Ritchie MD, Bittinger K, Weljie A, Cadwell K, Bushman FD, Wu GD, FitzGerald GA, Ricciotti E. : Concomitant suppression of COX-1 and COX-2 is insufficient to induce enteropathy associated with chronic NSAID use bioRxiv May 2025
  • Damani R, Vasisht S, Luks V, Vargas G, Compher C, Titchenell PM, Tasian G, Li H, Wu GD, Witschey WR, Gershuni VM. : Sex-based differences in imaging-derived body composition and their association with clinical malnutrition in abdominal surgery patients medRxiv Apr 2025
  • Hecht AL, Mahmud N, Chaudhry S, Cao JY, Branigan GP, Lee J, Theiller E, Roggiani M, Friedman ES, Herman L, Galis BE, Jones SM, Planet PJ, Zackular JP, Kaplan DE, Serper M, Rajender Reddy K, Moustafa AM, Goulian M, Wu GD. : Carbohydrate consumption drives adaptive mutations in Escherichia coli associated with increased risk for systemic infection bioRxiv Mar 2025
  • Yan J, Ren R, Chang R, Dan W, Zhang X, Pan F, Yan B, Lee H, Josie N, Sun G, Peng L, Wu GD, Yang Y. : Development and Initial Use of a New Inflammatory Bowel Disease Clinical Database Integrating Both Eastern and Western Clinical Characteristics Chronic Dis Transl Med 11 : 130-139, Feb 2025
  • Benitez AJ, Tanes C, Friedman ES, Zackular JP, Ford E, Gerber JS, DeRusso PA, Kelly A, Li H, Elovitz MA, Wu GD, Zemel B, Bittinger K. : Antibiotic exposure is associated with minimal gut microbiome perturbations in healthy term infants Microbiome 13 : 21, Jan 2025
  • Soto Ocaña J, Friedman ES, Keenan O, Bayard NU, Ford E, Tanes C, Munneke MJ, Beavers WN, Skaar EP, Bittinger K, Zemel BS, Wu GD, Zackular JP. : Metal availability shapes early life microbial ecology and community succession mBio 15 : e0153424, Oct 2024