Gillian E. Wu

Wu was born in London, England and emigrated to Canada in 1951.[1] Her family settled in Southern Ontario, where her father was a shipbuilder and her mother was a homemaker who encouraged her children in their studies[1] She attended McMaster University for her undergraduate studies, and completed her MSc in medical biophysics at the University of Toronto in 1969 as the first female student of the program and the first female graduate.[2] She was supervised by Robert A Phillips. Her early interest in immunology was encouraged by Hardy Cinader.[1] In 1980, she commenced her PhD in medical genetics with Helios Murialdo, which resulted in four publications, including one in Cell[2][3]

Following her MSc, Wu worked as a technician at the Donner Radiation Labs in UC Berkeley, and lectured in microbiology and histology in Toronto.[4] After her PhD, she worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the Basel Institute for Immunology, then was recruited in 1986 to be an assistant professor in the new Department of Immunology at the University of Toronto.[4] She moved to the Wellesley Hospital Research Institute in 1993 and then later to Princess Margaret Hospital in 1998. She joined York University as dean of science and engineering in 2001, and retired in January 2015.[4]

1984   Ph.D.                Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto,

                                   “Molecular Genetic Analysis of Immunoglobulin Production”

                                   Supervisor: Professor Helios Murialdo

1969   M.Sc.               Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto,                                             

                                   "Differentiation of Rosette-forming Cells from Clones of Hemopoietic Stem Cells”

                                   Supervisor: Professor Robert A. Phillips                                                                            

1967   B.Sc.                Honours Biology, McMaster University

2008–present              Life Member, Clare Hall, University of Cambridge

2007-2008                   Visiting Fellow, Clare Hall, University of Cambridge

2006–Present              Professor, School of Kinesiology and Health Science, York University

2001–Present              Professor, Department of Biology, York University, Toronto, ON

2001–Present              Adjunct Professor, Department of Immunology, University of Toronto

1999 Spring                Visiting Professor, Gulbenkian Institute for Science, Oeiras, Portugal

1998 - 2001                 Professor, Department of Medical Biophysics University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

1998 - 2001                 Senior Scientist, Ontario Cancer Institute, Toronto, Canada

1996 - 2001                 Professor, Department of Immunology, University of Toronto,                                 

1996 Summer             Visiting Scientist, Pasteur Institute, Paris, France

1993 - 1998                 Senior Scientist, The Wellesley Hospital Research Institute, Toronto, Canada

1991 - 1996                 Associate Professor, Department of Immunology, University of Toronto,           

1991 - 1993                 Associate Professor, Department of Molecular and Medical Genetics, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada

1988 - 1991                 Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular and Medical Genetics, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada

1986 - 1991                 Assistant Professor, Department of Immunology, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada

1984 - 1986                 Member, Basel Institute for Immunology, Basel Switzerland

1975 - 1976                 Research Associate, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA

1969 - 1971                 Biophysicist, Donner Laboratories, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA

2003                            Aventis Pasteur CSI Bernhard Cinader Prize for Research and Education

1994 - 1999                 Scientist, Medical Research Council of Canada 

1989 - 1994                 Scholar, Medical Research Council of Canada 

1980 - 1984                 Studentship, Medical Research Council of Canada,

1968 - 1969                 Graduate Scholarship, Medical Research Council of Canada

1967 - 1968                 Graduate Scholarship, National Research Council of Canada

Wu studies how diversity in antigen-specific B-cell and T-cell receptors are generated. As part of her PhD research, she identified a natural mutation in a cell line that inhibited the secretion of immunoglobulins (Ig).[3] Research in her laboratory determined that variation in the strength of V(D)J recombination signal sequence affects the pattern of Ig gene rearrangement and expression.[5] She also examines the role of the immune system in autoimmune diseases[6] and cancers.

Wu's research focuses on the mechanisms of normal and abnormal development in the immune system. To this end, her research is directed in two major areas: 1. Understanding normal B Cell development with particular emphasis on the process of V(D)J recombination; and 2. Understanding abnormal development in the immune system with particular emphasis on studying human cancers and autoimmune diseases.  Approaches include in vivo and bioinformatics analyses.

Some of her most notable researches are: Targeted Disruption of the PU.1 Gene Results in Multiple Hematopoietic Abnormalities,[7] Hemokinin is a hematopoietic-specific tachykinin that regulates B lymphopoiesis,[8] Targeted expression of a human pituitary tumor-derived isoform of FGF receptor-4 recapitulates pituitary tumorigenesis,[9] Caspase-3 regulates cell cycle in B cells: A consequence of substrate specificity,[10] all of which she worked on with other scientists.

She married Alan Ming-ta Wu, a fellow graduate student who was in Ernest McCulloch's laboratory.[1] They had two sons, Tim Wu and David Wu.[4]

• Hardy Cinader Award, 2003[1]
• John D. Reynolds Award, 2016[11]