Biography

Dr Chu graduated in Molecular Biotechnology from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2004 and completed his DPhil research program at the University of Oxford in 2010, followed by 4-year post-doctoral research in the University of Copenhagen.

In 2015, Dr Chu was appointed as the Assistant Professor in Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences (DOVS) at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK).

The primary academic interest of Dr Chu lies in genome stability and stem cell proteomics. Dr Chu’s earlier work established molecular roles for helicases BLM and FBH1 in homologous recombination. Recently, his proteomic studies provided insight into the differentiation of embryonic stem cells into epiblast stem cells and neural stem cells. Dr Chu has delivered 5 lectures as invited speaker in conferences in Denmark and Germany.

Dr Chu was awarded the Anita Mui 'True Heart' Charity Foundation Award in 2006. In the same year, Dr Chu was also awarded the K. P. Tin Foundation Limited Award. In 2007, Dr Chu received the China Oxford Scholarship.

Research interests

1. Cell cycle regulation and apoptosis in retinoblastoma.
2. Mitochondrial and endoplasmic reticulum stresses in retinal degenerative diseases.
3. Proteomics and post-translational modifications in ocular diseases.

Ten Representative Publications

1. Fugger, K., Mistrik, M., Neelsen, K.J., Yao, Q., Zellweger, R., Kousholt, A.N., Haahr, P., Chu, W.K., Bartek, J., Lopes, M., Hickson, I.D., Sørensen, C.S. (2015) FBH1 catalyzes regression of stalled replication forks. Cell Reports, 10, 1749.
   (Journal impact factor: 7.207 in 2014)
2. Chu, W.K., Payne, M.J., Beli, P., Hanada, K., Choudhary, C. and Hickson, I.D. (2015) FBH1 influences replication-associated homologous recombination through ubiquitylation of RAD51. Nature Communications, 6, 5931.
   (Journal impact factor: 10.742 in 2014)
3. Simandlova, J., Zagelbaum, J., Payne, M.J., Chu, W.K., Shevelev, I., Hanada, K., Chatterjee, S., Reid, D.A., Liu, Y., Janscak, P., Rothenberg, E. and Hickson, I.D. (2013) FBH1 disrupts RAD51 filaments in vitro and modulates homologous recombination in mammalian cells. The Journal of Biological Chemistry, 288, 34168.
   (Journal impact factor: 4.600 in 2014; Citation number: 7)
4. Rosenthal, A.S., Dexheimer, T.S., Gileadi, O., Nguyen, G.H., Chu, W.K., Hickson, I.D., Jadhav, A., Simeonov, A. and Maloney, D.J. (2013) Synthesis and SAR studies of 5-(pyridin-4-yl)-1,3,4-thiadiazol-2-amine derivatives as potent inhibitors of Bloom helicase. Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters, 23, 5660.
   (Journal impact factor: 2.331 in 2014; Citation number: 6)
5. Ying, S., Minocherhomji, S., Chan, K.L., Palmai-Pallag, T., Chu, W.K., Wass, T., Mankouri, H.W., Liu, Y. and Hickson, I.D. (2013) MUS81 promotes common fragile site expression. Nature Cell Biology, 15, 1001.
   (Journal impact factor: 20.058 in 2014; Citation number: 48)
6. Fugger, K., Chu, W.K., Haahr, P., Kousholt, A.N., Beck, H., Payne, M.J., Hanada, K., Hickson, I.D. and Sørensen, C.S. (2013) FBH1 co-operates with MUS81 in inducing DNA double-strand breaks and cell death following replication stress. Nature Communications, 4, 1423.
   (Journal impact factor: 10.742 in 2014; Citation number: 23)
7. Nguyen, G.H., Dexheimer, T.S., Rosenthal, A.S., Chu, W.K., Mosedale, G., Bachrati, C.Z., Schultz, L., Sakurai, M., Savisky, P., Abu, M., Bohr, V.A., Harris, C.C., Jadhav, A., Gileadi, O., Maloney, D.J., Simeonov, A. and Hickson, I.D. (2013) A small molecule inhibitor of the BLM helicase modulates chromosome stability in human cells. Chemistry & Biology, 20, 55-62.
   (Journal impact factor: 6.586 in 2014; Citation number: 27)
8. Mankouri, M.W., Chu, W.K. and Hickson, I.D. (2011) A novel Srs2 orthologue gains PARIty. Molecular Cell, 45, 6-7.
   (Journal impact factor: 14.464 in 2014; Citation number: 2)
9. Chu, W.K., Hanada, K., Kanaar, R. and Hickson, I.D. (2010) BLM has early and late functions in homologous recombination repair in mouse embryonic stem cells. Oncogene, 29, 4705-14.
   (Journal impact factor: 8.559 in 2014; Citation number: 25)
10. Chu, W.K. and Hickson, I.D. (2009) RecQ helicases: multifunctional genome caretakers. Nature Reviews Cancer, 9, 644-654.
    (Journal impact factor: 37.912 in 2014; Citation number: 233)