Sean M. Wu

Sean M. Wu is a Professor of Medicine (Cardiovascular Medicine) and Professor (by courtesy) of Pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine. He directs a multidisciplinary laboratory focused on cardiovascular developmental biology, stem cell research, and cardiac tissue engineering. Dr. Wu is a board-certified cardiologist with clinical expertise in coronary artery disease, arrhythmias, cardio-oncology, and congenital heart disease.

• Education: BS in Mechanical Engineering and Biological Science from Stanford (1992), PhD in Pathology from Duke (1998), MD from Duke (1999)
• Clinical Training: Internal Medicine Residency at Duke (2001), Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship at MGH (2005-2008)

Research Interests: His work spans four major areas:

• Cardiovascular Developmental Biology: Using murine models to study heart chamber formation and congenital heart disease mechanisms
• Cardiovascular Tissue Engineering: Developing 3D bioprinted functional cardiac tissues with vascularization
• Disease Modeling: Human iPSC-based platforms for studying cardiac development and pathology
• Regenerative Biology: Exploring stem cell therapies for heart failure and conduction system repair

Scientific Leadership: Dr. Wu serves as Senior Vice Chair for Academic Affairs in Stanford's Department of Medicine and Chair-Elect of the AHA Basic Cardiovascular Sciences Council. His lab's recent work has demonstrated breakthroughs in:

• Automated single-cell annotation via devCellPy
• Cardiac conduction system molecular targeting
• Cardiomyocyte proliferation pathway regulation
• Immune mechanisms in checkpoint inhibitor myocarditis
• Human-scale synthetic vasculature design

Scientific Honors: Dr. Wu has received numerous awards including:

• NIH Director's Pioneer Award (2014-2019)
• NIH New Innovator Award (2008-2013)
• Election to the Association of University Cardiologists (2023)
• American Heart Association Established Investigator Award (2017-2021)
• David Lawrence Stein Award (2014)

Academic Impact: With over 170 publications and 28 featured works, Dr. Wu has pioneered:

• First hiPSC cardiac differentiation protocols with Wnt modulation
• Single-cell transcriptomic atlases of human cardiac development
• Cardiac conduction system imaging tools
• Computational frameworks for organ-scale bioprinting