2002-2008: Postdoctoral fellow, Washington University in St. Louis
1997-2002: Ph.D., Washington University in St. Louis
1994-1997: M.Sc., Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
1990-1994: B.Sc., Sichuan University, Chengdu, China

Bio

2014-Present: Associate Professor of Neuroscience, Cell Biology and Anatomy, LSU Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, LA

2008-2014: Assistant Professor of Neuroscience, Cell Biology and Anatomy, LSU Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, LA

Research Interests

The goals of my research are to identify the molecular pathways and matrix that shape the connection, structure and strength of synaptic connections formed during development, and to study how defects in neural development are linked to many neurological disorders. Using Drosophila as a model system, we combine genetic, cell biological, biochemical and proteomic approaches to identify novel molecules that play essential roles in neural development and neurodegeneration.

Keywords:

Synaptic formation, active zone, neurodegeneration, synaptic development and plasticity.

Selected Publications

Key Recent Papers

Sayantani Kala-Bhattacharjee, Sedonia Davis, Ben Sheline, Craig Schayot, Xiaolin Tian, Chunlai Wu. (2025) Characterization of Endogenous and Epitope-Tagged Ubiquitin Expression and Ubiquitination Patterns at Drosophila Neuromuscular Junctions bioRxiv doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.11.11.687520

Chunlai Wu. (2025) Efficient Gibson Assembly of Ultra-Large cDNAs: Generation of Full-length Wild-Type and Mutated futsch transgenes in Drosophila bioRxiv doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.11.11.687501

Xiaolin Tian, Nathan Le, Yuhai Zhao, Dina Alawamleh, Andrew Schwartz, Lauren Meyer, Elizabeth Helm and Chunlai Wu. (2025) Upregulating ANKHD1 in PS19 mice reduces Tau phosphorylation and mitigates Tautoxicity-induced cognitive deficits. International Journal of Molecular Sciences Aug 4;26(15):7524. doi: 10.3390/ijms26157524.

Xiao-Peng Xiong, Weihong Liang, Wei Liu, Shiyu Xu, Jian-Liang Li, Antonio Tito, Julia Situ, Daniel Martinez, Chunlai Wu, Ranjan J Perera, Sheng Zhang, Rui Zhou. (2022) The circular RNA Edis regulates neurodevelopment and innate immunity. PLoS Genetics. Oct 27;18(10):e1010429. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1010429. PMID: 36301822

Daniel Martinez, Mingwei Zhu, Jessie J. Guidry, Niles Majeste, Hui Mao, Sarah T. Yanofsky, Xiaolin Tian and Chunlai Wu. (2021) Mask, the Drosophila Ankyrin Repeat and KH domain-containing protein, regulates microtubule dynamics. Journal of Cell Science. 134, jcs258512. doi:10.1242/jcs.258512

Mingwei Zhu, Sheng Zhang, Xiaolin Tian and Chunlai Wu. (2017) Mask mitigates MAPT- and FUS-induced degeneration by enhancing autophagy through lysosomal acidification. Autophay. 13 : 1924-1938. PMCID: 5788473

Keng Chen, Chwee Tat Koe, Zhanyuan Benny Xing, Xiaolin Tian, Fabrizio Rossi, Cheng Wang, Quan Tang, Wenhui Zong, Wan Jin Hong, Reshma Taneja, Fengwei Yu, Cayetano Gonzalez, Chunlai Wu, Sharyn Endow, and Hongyan Wang. (2016) Arl2 and Msps-dependent microtubule growth governs asymmetric division.Journal of Cell Biology. 212(6): 661-676

Mingwei Zhu, Xia Li, Xiaolin Tian, Chunlai Wu. (2015) Mask loss-of-function rescues mitochondrial impairment and muscle degeneration of Drosophila pink1 and parkin mutants. Human Molecular Genetics. 24(11): 3272-3285.

Long Li, Xiaolin Tian, Mingwei Zhu, Dinara Bulgari, Mathias A. Böhme, Fabian Goettfert, Carolin Wichmann, Stephan J. Sigrist, Edwin S. Levitan and Chunlai Wu. (2014) Drosophila Syd-1, Liprin-α and PP2A B' subunit Wrd function in a linear pathway to prevent ectopic accumulation of synaptic materials in distal axons. Journal of Neuroscience.

Xiaolin Tian, Mingwei Zhu, Long Li and Chunlai Wu. (2013) Identifying protein-protein interaction in Drosophila adult heads by tandem affinity purification (TAP). The Journal of Visualized Experiments (JOVE). (82). doi: 10.3791/50968

Xiaolin Tian and Chunlai Wu. (2013) The role of ubiquitin-mediated pathways in regulating synaptic development, axonal degeneration and regeneration: insight from fly and worm. PMID: 23613532. The Journal of Physiology

Xiaolin Tian, Jing Li, Vera Valakh, Aaron DiAntonio, and Chunlai Wu. (2011). Drosophila Rae1 controls the abundance of the ubiquitin ligase Highwire in post-mitotic neurons. Nature Neuroscience 14, 1267-1275. PMID: 21874015, PMCID: PMC3183334

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