Dr. Qihao Wu joined the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh as an Assistant Professor in February 2025. The Wu Lab explores two major research areas. The first focuses on gut microbial metabolism of xenobiotics, aiming to unravel how the gut microbiome metabolizes xenobiotics, including drugs and dietary compounds, and its broader implications for human health. The second area centers on paired omics-directed natural product discovery, utilizing omics technologies to uncover the untapped potential of orphan biosynthetic gene clusters from marine and human microbial symbionts for small-molecule drug discovery and development.
For more details, visit the Wu Lab website.
Before joining the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy, Qihao completed his postdoctoral training with Dr. Jason Crawford at the Yale Chemistry Department, where he explored how human gut commensal microbiota impact GPCR drug activity through diverse biotransformations.
He earned his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry as a joint-training graduate student at Zhejiang University of Technology and the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, under the guidance of Dr. Hong Wang and Dr. Yue-Wei Guo. Inspired by marine chemical ecology, his research focused on discovering bioactive marine natural products, leading to the characterization of more than 100 bioactive compounds. During his Ph.D., Qihao joined Dr. David Rowley’s lab at the University of Rhode Island as a visiting research fellow, where he investigated small molecule-mediated interactions between marine bacterial pathogens and probiotics, uncovering their pathogenic mechanisms and therapeutic potential.
Following his Ph.D., he joined Dr. Mohamed Donia’s lab at Princeton University as a postdoctoral research associate, developing high-throughput methodologies to study the biochemical transformations of orally administered drugs by the human gut microbiome. He later worked in Dr. Tim Bugni’s lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and integrated multi-omics approaches, medicinal chemistry, and mode-of-action studies to develop novel antibiotic drug leads.
- Ph.D.
Education & Training
Research Area I: Gut Microbial Metabolism of Xenobiotics
Research Area II: Paired Omics-Directed Natural Product Discovery
Biochemical Pharmacology
Pharmacogenetics
2024 Best Poster Presentation Award | 24th Annual Microbiology Department Retreat, Yale University
2022 Marine Drugs 2021–2022 Travel Award Recipient
2019 The Outstanding Ph.D. Thesis Award of Zhejiang University of Technology
2018 The National Scholarship of China
2018 Speaker Award | Medicinal Chemistry Section, Annual Conference of Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
2017 2nd Place Poster Award | Mogan Mountain International Summit on Green Pharmaceuticals, Deqing, China
2016 The National Scholarship of China
2016 Visiting Research Fellowship for Graduate Students | Zhejiang University of Technology
2015 The Graduate Scholarship of Zhejiang University of Technology
2014 The Graduate Scholarship of Zhejiang University of Technology
- Wu, Q.#; Song, D.#; Zhao, Y.; Verdegaal, A. A.; Turocy, T.; Duncan-Lowey, B.; Goodman, A. L.*; Palm, N. W.*; Crawford, J. M.* Activity of GPCR-Targeted Drugs Influenced by Human Gut Microbiota Metabolism. Nat. Chem. (In Press)
- Xue, D.; Madden, M. D.; Older, E. A.; Pulliam, C.; Madu, J.; Hui, Y.; Lian, X.; Madu, J.; Shang, Z.; Gupta, G.; Raja, M. K.; Wang, Y.; Sardi, A.; Chen, H.; Fan, D.; Bugni, T. S.; Testerman, T. T.; Wu, Q.*; Li, J.* Discovery of A Chimeric Polyketide Family as Cancer Immunogenic Chemotherapeutic Leads. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2025, 147, 265–277.
- Wu, Q.; Bell, B. A.; Yan, J.-X.; Chevrette, M. G.; Brittin, N. J.; Zhu, Y.; Chnana, S.; Maity, M.; Braun, D. R.; Wheaton, A. M.; Guzei, I. A.; Ge, Y.; Rajski, S. R.; Thomas, M. G.; Bugni, T. S.* Metabolomics and Genomics Enable the Discovery of a New Class of Nonribosomal Peptidic Metallophores From a Marine Micromonospora. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2023, 145, 58−69.
- Wu, Q.#; Li, S.-W.#; Xu, H.#; Wang, H.; Hu, P.; Zhang, H.; Luo, C.; Chen, K.-X.; Nay, B.*; Guo, Y.-W.*; Li, X.-W.* Complex Polypropionates from a South China Sea Photosynthetic Mollusk: Isolation and Biomimetic Synthesis Highlighting Novel Rearrangements. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2020, 59: 12105−12122.
- Javdan, B.#; Lopez, J.#; Chankhamjon, P.; Lee, Y. C. J.; Hull, R.; Wu, Q.; Wang, X.; Chatterjee, S.; Donia, M. S.* Personalized Mapping of Drug Metabolism by the Human Gut Microbiome. Cell 2020, 181: 1661−1679.
#equal contribution; * corresponding author
