Amy Wong

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Dr. Amy Wong is a Scientist in the Program of Developmental & Stem Cell Biology at the Hospital for Sick Children and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto. 

Dr. Wong completed her undergraduate degree in the Life Sciences at the University of Toronto in 2001 and went on to achieve graduate degrees at the University of Toronto: a Master of Science (MSc) in Cardiovascular sciences (with Dr. Bradley Strauss, 2001-2003) and a Doctoral degree (PhD) in lung regeneration (with Dr. Thomas Waddell, 2004-2008). She then joined the SickKids Research Institute in early 2009 as a post-doctoral fellow in the labs of Dr. Janet Rossant and Dr. James Ellis.

Merging developmental biology concepts and stem cell engineering, Dr. Wong was the first to develop a method to generate airway epithelia that model Cystic Fibrosis (CF) lung disease in-vitro (Nature Biotechnology 2012; Nature Protocol 2015). Airway cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) are now being used to identify targeted and personalized therapies to correct the CF defect. This work was pivotal in the development of the world’s most unique bioresource CF patient iPSC, primary airway cells and whole genome sequencing data (CF Individualized Therapy program’s 100-cell project) to support on-going and future CF research across the globe.

Dr. Wong is internationally recognized as a pioneer in using human stem cells to model lung development and disease.

Research Synopsis

Our lab has three main research interests

Leveraging our pre-clinical human lung models, our research program aims to:

1. Development: Understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms regulating human lung development.
2. Disease modelling: Utilize this new knowledge to identify molecular/cellular basis of pulmonary diseases.
3. Regeneration: Design and test new therapies to treat congenital (CF) and acquired (COVID-19) lung diseases.

Selected Publications

Shuk Yee Ngan, Henry Quach, Onofrio Laselva, Elena Huang, Maria Mangos, Sunny Xia, Christine Bear, Amy P. Wong. Stage-specific generation of human pluripotent stem cell derived lung models to measure CFTR function. Current Protocols. 2022 Jan;2(1):e341. doi: 10.1002/cpz1.341.

Jia Xin Jiang, Leigh Wellhauser, Onofrio Laselva, Irina Utkina, Zoltan Bozoky, Tarini Gunawardena, Zoe Ngan, Sunny Xia, Paul Eckford, Felix Ratjen, Theo J. Moraes, John Parkinson, Amy P. Wong and *Christine E. Bear. (2021). A new platform for high-throughput therapy testing on iPSC-derived, lung progenitor cells from Cystic Fibrosis Patients. Stem Cell Reports. 16(11): 2825-2837.

Elena N Huang, Henry Quach, Jin-A Lee, Joshua G Dierolf, Theo J Moraes, Amy P Wong. (2021). A developmental role of CFTR in cystic fibrosis lung disease pathogenesis. Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology. 9(11 October): 742891.

Shuk Yee Ngan, Henry Quach, Joshua Dierolf, Onofrio Laselva, Jin-A Lee, Elena Huang, Maria Mangos, Sunny Xia, Amy P. Wong. (2021). Modeling lung cell development using human pluripotent stem cells. bioRxiv 2021.07.16.452691.

Jin-A Lee, Alex Cho, Elena N Huang, Yiming Xu, Henry Quach, Jim Hu, Amy P Wong. (2021). Gene therapy for cystic fibrosis: new tools for precision medicine. Journal of Translational Medicine. 19(1): 452.

Lina Antounians, Vicenzo Catania, Louise Montalva, Benjamin Liu, Huayun Hou, Cadia Chan, Areti Tzanetakis, Bo Li, Rebecca Lopes Figueira, Karina Miura da Costa, Amy P Wong, Robert Mitchell, Anna David, Ketan Patel, Paolo De Coppi, Lourenci Sbragia Neto, Michael Wilson, Janet Rossant, Augusto Zani. (2021). Impaired Fetal Lung Development can be Rescued by Administration of Extracellular Vesicles Derived from Amniotic Fluid Stem Cells. Science Translational Medicine. 590(13): eaax5941.

Ahmadi S, Bozoky Z, Di Paola M, Xia S, Li C, Wong AP, Wellhauser L, Molinski S, Ip W, Ouyang H, Avolio J, Forman-Kay JD, Ratjen F, Hirota JA, Rommens J, Rossant J, Gonska T, Moraes TJ, Bear CE. Phenotypic profiling of CFTR modulators in patient-derived respiratory epithelia. NPJ Genom Med. 2017 Apr 14;2:12. 

Duchesneau P, Besla R, Derouet M, Guo L, Karoubi G, Silberberg A, Wong AP, Waddell TK. Partial restoration of CFTR function in CFTR-null mice following targeted cell replacement therapy. Molecular Therapy. 2017 Mar 1;25(3):654-665. 

Wong AP, Chin S, Xia S, Garner J, Bear CE, Rossant J. Efficient generation of functional CFTR-expressing airway epithelial cells from human pluripotent stem cells. Nature Protocols. 2015 Mar;10(3):363-81.

Wong AP, Bear CE, Chin S, Pasceri P, Thompson TO, Huan LJ, Ratjen F, Ellis J, Rossant J. Directed differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells into mature airway epithelia expressing functional CFTR protein. Nature Biotechnology. 2012 Sep;30(9):876-82. (SEMINAL WORK)

Teaching

LMP320 (New course starting January 2023)

Appointments

Scientist, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto

Assistant Professor, University of Toronto

Honours and Awards

• CIHR-IHDCYH & SickKids Foundation New Investigator Award (2019)
• Vertex CF Research Innovation Award (2017)
• Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellowship Award (2013-2015)
• CIHR Young Investigators Forum Best Research Award (2012)
• Lap-Chee Tsui Publication Award Finalist (2012)
• Joseph Milic-Emili Best Basic Science Award (2009)
• Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation Post-doctoral fellowship (2009 - 2011)