Guangshun (Gus) Wang, PhD

Department Affiliations
Professor

Interests
Host defense antimicrobial peptides, Structural bioinformatics, Biomolecular NMR

Please visit Dr. Wang's laboratory webpage for further information on his research.

The Antimicrobial Peptide Database

The Antimicrobial Peptide Database (APD) was originally created by a graduate student, Zhe Wang, as his master's thesis in the laboratory of Dr. Guangshun Wang. The APD was developed to facilitate research and education of antimicrobial peptides. The project was initiated in 2002 and the first version of the database was open to the public in August 2003. The database was updated and expanded to APD2 in 2009 and APD3 in 2016, respectively. 

Education and Training
BS, Yangzhou University, 1985 (Chemistry)
MS, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1988 (Environmental Chemistry)
PhD, Simon Fraser University, 1997 (Biophysical Chemistry)
Postdoctoral fellow: Florida State University, 1997-1999 (Structural Biology);
National Institutes of Health, 1999-2002 (Protein NMR)

Notable Publications

Lakshmaiah Narayana J, Golla R, Mishra B, Wang X, Lushnikova T, Zhang Y, Verma A, Kumar V, Xie J, Wang G.* 2021. Short and Robust Anti-Infective Lipopeptides Engineered Based on the Minimal Antimicrobial Peptide KR12 of Human LL-37. ACS Infect Dis. 7, 1795-1808. 

Lakshmaiah Narayana J, Mishra B, Lushnikova T, Wu Q, Chhonker YS, Zhang Y, Zarena D, Salnikov ES, Dang X, Wang F, Murphy C, Foster KW, Gorantla S, Bechinger B, Murry DJ, Wang G.* 2020. Two distinct amphipathic peptide antibiotics with systemic efficacy. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 117, 19446-19454. 

Mishra, B.#, Narayana, J.L.#, Lushinikova, T., Wang, X.Q., and Wang, G.* 2019. Low cationicity is important for systemic in vivo efficacy of database-derived peptides against drug-resistant Gram-positive pathogens. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 116, 13517-13522. 

Mishra, B., Reiling, S., Zarena, D., Wang, G.* 2017. Host defense antimicrobial peptide as antibiotics: design and application strategies. Curr. Opin. Chem. Biol. 38, 87-96.

Wang, G.* Li, X., Wang, Z. 2016 APD3: the antimicrobial peptide database as a tool for research and education. Nucleic Acids Research, 44, D1087-D1093.

Wang, G.* 2014 Human Antimicrobial Peptides and Proteins. Pharmaceuticals 7, 545-594.

Wang, G.* Hanke, M.L., Mishra, B., Lushnikova, T., Heim, C.E., Chittezham, Thomas V., Bayles, K.W., Kielian, T. 2014 Transformation of Human Cathelicidin LL-37 into Selective, Stable, and Potent Antimicrobial Compounds. ACS Chem. Biol. 9, 1997-2002.

Mishra, B., Wang, G.* 2012. Ab initio design of potent anti-MRSA peptides based on database filtering technology (DFT).J. Am. Chem. Soc. 134, 12426-12429.

Menousek, J., Mishra, B., Hanke, M.L., Heim, C.E., Kielian, T., Wang, G.* 2012. Database screening and in vivo efficacy of antimicrobial peptides against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus USA300. Int. J. Antimicrob. Agents 39, 402-406.

Wang, G.* 2008. Structures of human host defense cathelicidin LL-37 and its smallest antimicrobial peptide KR-12 in lipid micelles. J. Biol. Chem. 283:32637-32643. PDB entry: 2K6O; BMRB entry: 15876.

Li, X., Li, Y., Han, H-Y., Miller, D.W. & Wang, G.* 2006. Solution structures of human LL-37 fragments and NMR-based identification of a minimal membrane-targeting antimicrobial and anticancer region. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 128:5776-5785. PDB entries: 2FBS; 2FBU; 2FCG.

Wang, Z. & Wang, G.* 2004. APD: the antimicrobial peptide database. Nucleic Acids Res. 32:D590-D592. Web site http://aps.unmc.edu/AP/main.html

*Corresponding author. #Equal contributions

Books
Wang, G. (ed.) 2017. Antimicrobial peptides: Discover, Design and Novel Therapeutic Strategies.  CABI, Oxfordshire, UK (2nd ed.)

For a detailed list of publications, click here.