The Fu laboratory mainly studies how nuclear receptors sense environmental clues and regulate Gastrointestinal (GI) homeostasis in healthy and disease states. Specifically, we are interested in how dietary and microbial induced bile acids are sensed by Farnesoid X Receptor (FXR) and dynamically affect intestinal development, differentiation and inflammation, focusing on colorectal cancer (CRC) and Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Graduate students and postdocs interested in joining our Lab are encouraged to email Dr. Fu.

Working: 

• 2020/10-  Assistant Professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison       

Education:

• 2015-2020:Postdoc training in Dr. Ronald Evans' lab at Salk Institute of Biological Science, San Diego, CA.
• 2008-2014: Ph.D. training in Dr. Jongsook Kim Kemper's lab at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL.

Awards & Grants

• 2024-2027:Research Scholar Grant, American Cancer Society (ACS)
  – Coaches vs. Cancer – Bo Ryan-Jay Holliday Families Fund
• 2024-2026:Early stage Investigator Award, Margaret Q. Landenberger Research Foundation            
• 2024: Faculty Starter Grant Award, PhRMA Foundation
• 2020: AACR Scholar-in-Training Awards
• 2019: Crohn’s Colitis Foundation IBD Visiting Scholar Fellowship
• 2017: Kern Lipid Conference Early Career Investigator Awards
• 2017-2019: Hewitt Foundation for Medical Research Postdoc Fellowship Award
• 2016: Salk Alumni Fellowship Award
• 2015: Outstanding PhD Thesis Award

1. Xingchen Dong*, Ming Qi, Chunmiao Cai, Yu Zhu, Yuwenbin Li, Sally Coulter, Fei Sun, Christopher Liddle, Nataliya V Uboha, Richard Halberg, Wei Xu, Paul Marker, Ting Fu,*,# .FXR mediates macrophage-intrinsic responses to suppress colitis-induced colon cancer progression. Journal of Clinical Investigation Insight,2024. DOI: 10.1172/jci.insight.170428. *, co-first authorship. #, corresponding authorship.
2. Xingchen Dong*, Chunmiao Cai*, Ting Fu # . FXR suppresses colorectal cancer by inhibiting the Wnt/β-catenin pathway via activation of TLE3. Genes and Diseases, 2022. DOI: 10.1016/j.gendis.2022.09.006*, co-first authorship. #, corresponding authorship.
3. Young-Chae Kim, Sunmi Seok, Xingchen Dong, Hao Sun, Byron Kemper, Ting Fu#, Jongsook Kim Kemper#. Transgenic mice lacking FGF15/19-SHP phosphorylation display altered bile acids and gut bacteria, promoting nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Journal Biological Chemistry, 2023. DOI:10.1016/j.jbc.2023.104946 *,co-corresponding authorship. #, co-corresponding authorship.
4. Ting Fu*, Tao Huan*, Gibraan Rahman*, Hui Zhi, …, Manuela Raffatellu, Pieter C. Dorrestein, Michael Downes, Rob Knight #, Ronald M. Evans #. Paired microbiome and metabolome analyses associate bile acid changes with colorectal cancer progression. Cell Reports. 2023 Aug;112997. DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112997  *, co-first authorship. #, co-corresponding authorship.
5. Ting Fu, Yuwenbin Li, Tae Gyu Oh, Fritz Cayabyab, ...,Ye Zheng, Christopher Liddle, Michael Downes #, Ronald M. Evans#, et al. FXR mediates ILC-intrinsic responses to intestinal inflammation. Dec 12, 2022, PNAS. DOI: /10.1073/pnas.2213041119
6. Ting Fu, Sally Coulter, Eiji Yoshihara, Tae Gyu Oh, Sungsoon Fang, Fritz Cayabyab, Qiyun Zhu, Michael Downes#, Ronald M. Evans#, et al. FXR regulates intestinal stem cell proliferation. VOLUME 176, ISSUE 5, P1098-1112.E18, FEBRUARY 21, 2019, Cell. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.01.036.
7. Tae Gyu Oh, Susy Kim, Cyrielle Caussy, Ting Fu,...Michael R. Downes, Ronald M. Evans#, and Rohit Loomba#, et al. A Universal Gut Microbiome-Derived Signature for Predicting NAFLD-Cirrhosis Externally Validated with Geographically Independent Cohorts. Cell Metabolism 32 (5), 878-888. e6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2020.06.005.
8. Robert A. Quinn, Alexey V. Melnik, Alison Vrbanac, Ting Fu, …Ronald M. Evans, Victor Nizet, Rob Knight, and Pieter C. Dorrestein, et al. Global Chemical Impacts of the Microbiome Include Unique Bile Acid Conjugates that Stimulate FXR. Nature, 2020 Mar; 579(7797):123-129. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2047-9
9. Ting Fu, Youngchea Kim, Dong-Hyun Kim, Sunmi Seok, Kelly Suino-Powell, H. Eric Xu, Byron Kemper and Jongsook Kim Kemper. FXR primes the liver for intestinal FGF15 signaling by transient induction of βklotho. Molecular Endocrinology, 2015 Oct 23; DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1210/me.2015-1226.
10. Sunmi Seok*, Ting Fu*, Sung-E Choi, Yang Li, Rong Zhu, Subodh Kumar, Xiaoxiao Sun, Gyesoon Yoon, Yup Kang, Wenxuan Zhong, Jian Ma, Byron Kemper, and Jongsook Kim Kemper. Transcriptional regulation of autophagy by an FXR/CREB1 axis (*equal contribution to this work) Nature, 516, 108–111 (04 December 2014) DOI: 10.1038/nature13949      
11. Ting Fu, Sunmi Seok, Sung-E Choi, Zhang Huang, Kelly Suino-Powell, H. Eric Xu, Byron Kemper, and Jongsook Kim Kemper. MiR-34a inhibits beige and brown fat formation in obesity in part by suppressing adipocyte FGF21 signaling and SIRT1 function. Molecular and Cellular Biology, 2014, Nov 15; 34(22):4130-42 DOI: 10.1128/MCB.00596-14.
12. Ting Fu, SungE Choi, Dong-Hyun Kim, Sunmi Seok, Kelly Suino-Powell, H. Eric Xu, and Jongsook Kim Kemper. Aberrantly elevated miR-34a in obesity attenuates hepatic responses to FGF19 by targeting a membrane coreceptor β-Klotho. PNAS, 2012 Oct 2; 109(40):16137-42 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1205951109.
13. SungE Choi, Ting Fu, Sunmi Seok, Dong-Hyun Kim, Eunkyung Yu, Kwan-woo Lee, Yup Kang, Xiaoling Li, Byron Kemper, Jongsook Kim Kemper. Elevated microRNA-34a in obesity reduces NAD+ levels and SIRT1 activity by directly targeting NAMPT. Aging Cell.  2013 Dec; 12(6):1062-72 DOI: 10.1111/acel.12135