Shengbo Wu PhD

Wu Shengbo, an Associate Professor in Zhejiang Institute of Tianjin University, Shaoxing. He also serves as the team leader for “Analysis and synthesis of microbial ecosystems”. He earned his B.S. in 2015, M.S. in 2018, and Ph.D. in 2022 from Tianjin University. He was also a postdoctoral researcher at the School of Chemical Engineering, Tianjin University in 2022-2024. He first proposed the concept of quorum sensing-based communication network (QSCN), with the research published in Trends in Microbiology (2021).

He can provide a unique skill for researching on the deciphering the QSCN for human gut microbiota aided by machine learning approaches. He has published papers as first author in many prestigious journals such as Nature Communications, Metabolic Engineering, Chemical Engineering Journal, and Briefings in Bioinformatics. He has won the National Scholarship for Doctoral Students of Tianjin University and the Excellent Graduate of Tianjin University. He is also an Excellent Young Academic Backbone Researcher in China Gut and reviewers for journals, such as Gut Microbes.

His research centres around the exploration and mechanism of quorum sensing (QS), with a focus on the analysis of social interactions and communications in natural microbial communities and the design and optimisation of some typical microbial ecosystems. He aims to investigate, modulate, and engineer QS communications within microbial communities utilizing integrated bioinformatics and synthetic biology approaches. 

Natural microbial community

(1) AI-based development of gut resource databases and QS-related analysis tools for different microbiome;

(2) To understand the interactions among different microbes in nature;

(3) Analysis of QS-based communications between microbes and human cells. 

Synthetic microbial consortia

(1) Analyse the effects of QS signal crosstalk on the stability of consortia and corresponding metabolism;

(2) Investigate applications of different QS dynamic control strategies in metabolic engineering;

(3) Develop the stable and intelligent engineering probiotic ecosystems for treating different diseases.

QSCN has broad prospects and important significance in the analysis, regulation, synthesis and optimization of microbiome and related applications.

[1] Wu S, et al., Molecules-mediated bidirectional interactions between microbes and human cells, npj Biofilms Microbi, 2025 Accept.

[2] Wu S, et al. Deciphering and designing microbial communities by genome-scale metabolic modelling, Comput Struct Biotec, 2024, 23,1990.

[3] Wu S, Zhou H et al. Multi-omic analysis tools for microbial metabolites prediction, Brief Bioinform, 2024, 25,4 : bbae264.

[4] Yuan L#, Wu S# et al., Nisin-relevant antimicrobial peptides: synthesis strategies and applications. Food Funct. 2024, 15(19): 9662-9677.

[5] Wu S, et al., Design and analysis of quorum sensing language “Interpreter” ecosystem for microbial community. 2024, Chem Eng J. 496:15314.

[6] Wu S, et al., Assembling functional microbial ecosystems from molecular circuits to communities. FEMS Microbiol. Rev. 2024, 48, fuae026.

[7] Chen D, et al.Quorum sensing regulating the productivity and stability of cross-feeding cocultivation. Chem. Eng. J.,2024, 502, 158167.

[8] Wu S, et al. Quorum sensing-based interactions among drugs, microbes, and diseases. Sci China Life Sci 2023, 66, 137-151.

[9] Feng J, Wu S, et al., Microbe-bridged disease-metabolite associations identification by heterogeneous graph fusion. Brief Bioinform. 2022, 23(6): bbac423.

[10] Wu S, et al. Potential of orthogonal and cross-talk quorum sensing for dynamic regulation in cocultivation. 2022, Chem Eng J. 2022; 445, 136720.

[11] Wu S, et al. Machine learning aided construction of the quorum sensing communication network for human gut microbiota. Nat Commun. 2022, 13(1): 3079.

[12] Wu S, et al. Vertical and horizontal quorum-sensing-based multicellular communications. Trends Microbiol. 2021, 29: 1130.

[13] Wu S, Liu C, et al. QSIdb:Quorum sensing interference molecules. Brief Bioinform. 2021, 22, bbaa218.

[14] Wu S, Xue Y, et al. Combinational quorum sensing devices for dynamic control in cross-feeding cocultivation. Metab Eng. 2021, 67.

[15] Wu S et al. Quorum sensing for population-level control of bacteria and potential therapeutic applications. Cell Mole Life Sci. 2020, 77, 1319.