Wu Tao

Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Peking University Health Science Center

Discipline Area
Epidemiology

Research Interest
Genetic Epidemiology
Birth defects

Dr. Wu joined the Department in September 1997. She teaches in the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in the areas of epidemiological methods and genetic epidemiology. Dr. Wu is a genetic epidemiologist. Her work deals with how genetic and environmental risk factors contribute to disease etiology. She uses statistical genetics to identify genetic and environmental factors for chronic diseases. Dr. Wu also studies birth defects, particularly cleft lip and cleft palate, and is conducting a family-based study on the genetic epidemiology of non-syndromic oral clefts among Chinese populations. For these projects, she uses genome-wide association, linkage, and sequence data to identify susceptibility loci for complex traits. She has also been leading the design and production of a MOOC named Fundamental Epidemiology which will be on Coursera and Icourse in 2014.

Recent Publications:

1. Wu T, Schwender H, Ruczinski I, et al. Evidence of gene−environment interaction for two genes on chromosome 4 and environmental tobacco smoke in controlling the risk of non-syndromic cleft palate. PLoS One. 2014. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0088088.
2. Wang P, Wang H, Wu T, et al. Association study for gene polymorphism of folic acid /homocysteine metabolic pathway and nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate in Chinese populations. Journal of Peking University (Health Sciences), 2013, 45(3):350-356. [in Chinese]
   
3. Wu T, Fallin MD, Shi M, ea al. Evidence of gene-environment interaction for the RUNX2 gene and environmental tobacco smoke in controlling the risk of cleft lip with/without cleft palate. Birth Defects Res A Clin Mol Teratol. 2012. 94(2):76-83.
   
4. Wu T, Liang KY, Hetmanski JB, Ruczinski I, Fallin MD, Ingersoll RG, Wang H, Huang S, Ye X, Wu-Chou YH, Chen PK, Jabs EW, Shi B, Redett R, Scott AF, Beaty TH. Evidence of gene-environment interaction for the IRF6 gene and maternal multivitamin supplementation in controlling the risk of cleft lip with/without cleft palate. Hum Genet. 2010. 128(4):401-410.