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Yao Wu, Ph.D.

Research Faculty (Assistant Prof)

Yao Wu, Ph.D., is Children’s National Hospital research faculty (tenure-track assistant professor) whose research interests include studying early brain development using non-invasive, in-vivo imaging techniques. Dr. Wu leverages these sophisticated imaging tools to understand and to measure critical brain maturational changes that occur during the prenatal and postnatal periods to identify the onset and timing of aberrant brain development.

Dr. Wu’s academic training and research experience have provided her with an excellent background in human brain image analyses. As an undergraduate student, she gained knowledge in computer science, image processing and human anatomy. During her Ph.D. studies at Southern Medical University, she conducted research on medical image analyses, developing automatic methods to segment brain tumors and prostate cancer in medical images, as well as using MR images to predict CT images, which is clinically desired for dose planning in MR‐based radiation therapy and attenuation correction in PET/MR. In the second year of her Ph.D. study, Dr. Wu studied at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she developed machine-learning based registration methods for infant brain MR images.

Dr. Wu joined the Developing Brain Institute (DBI) at Children’s National for her postdoctoral studies in 2015, which allowed her to extend her research training in the application of state-of-the-art MRI techniques to analyze fetal and neonatal brain structural development in uncomplicated and high-risk pregnancies. After joining DBI, Dr. Wu’s research has focused on analyzing fetal and neonatal brain MRI images and correlating image findings early in life with long-term behavioral development in healthy and high-risk populations.


Address: 111 Michigan Ave NW, Washington, DC 20010
Email: fetalbrain@childrensnational.org
Department: MRI Lab

Recent Publications & Presentations


2023
Weiner S, Wu Y, Kapse K, Krishnamurthy D, Limperopoulos C.
Elevated maternal anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic alters newborn hippocampal and amygdala development. Children’s National Hospital 13th Annual Research, Education and Innovation Week. Washington, D.C. April 2023. (Award-winning poster: Clinical research: Graduate student)
2022 | April
Wu Y, Espinosa KM, Barnett SD, Kapse A, Quistorff JL, Lopez C, Andescavage N, Pradhan S, Lu YC, Kapse K, Henderson D, Vezina G, Wessel D, du Plessis AJ, Limperopoulos C.
Association of elevated maternal psychological distress, altered fetal brain, and offspring cognitive and social-emotional outcomes at 18 months. JAMA Netw Open. 2022 Apr 1;5(4):e229244. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.9244. PMID: 35486403; PMCID: PMC9055453. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35486403/
2021
Wu Y, Lu YC, Kapse K, Jacobs M, Andescavage N, Donofrio MT, Lopez C, Quistorff JL, Vezina G, Krishnan A, du Plessis AJ, Limperopoulos C
In utero MRI identifies impaired second trimester subplate growth in fetuses with congenital heart disease
Cereb Cortex. 2021 Oct 28:bhab386. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhab386. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34882775 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34882775/
2021
Espinosa KM, Julian M, Wu Y, Lopez C, Donofrio MT, Krishnan A, Goudar S, Bowers S, Douglas-Barnett S, Limperopoulos C, Le HN
"The Mental Health Piece is Huge": perspectives on developing a prenatal maternal psychological intervention for congenital heart disease
Cardiol Young. 2021 Sep 30:1-8. doi: 10.1017/S1047951121004030. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34588092. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34588092/
2021
Wu Y, Andescavage N, Lopez C, Quistorff JL, Donofrio MT, du Plessis AJ, Limperopoulos C.
Maternal mental distress and cortisol levels in pregnancies with congenital heart disease. Cardiol Young. 2021 Aug 31:1-5. doi: 10.1017/S1047951121003504. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34462025. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34462025/
2021
Lu YC, Kapse K, Andersen N, Quistorff J, Lopez C, Fry A, Cheng J, Andescavage N, Wu Y, Espinosa K, Vezina G, du Plessis A, Limperopoulos C.
Association between socioeconomic status and in utero fetal brain development. JAMA Network Open. Published 2021, Mar 1;4(3):e213526. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.3526. PMID: 33779746. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33779746/
2020
Wu Y, Limperopoulos C.
Pregnancy stress, anxiety, and depression sequela on neonatal brain development-reply.
JAMA Pediatrics. 2020 Jun 20. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.1079. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics
2019
Wu Y, Stoodley C, Brossard-Racine M, Kapse K, Vezina G, Murnick J, du Plessis, AJ, Limperopoulos C.
Altered local cerebellar and brainstem development in preterm infants.
Neuroimage. 2020 Jun;213:116702. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116702. Epub 2020 Mar 5. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32147366/
2020
Wu Y, Lu YC, Jacobs M, Pradhan S, Kapse K, Zhao L, Andescavage N, Vezina G, du Plessis A, Limperopoulos C.
Association of prenatal maternal psychological distress with fetal brain growth, metabolism, and cortical maturation.
JAMA Network Open. 2020 Jan 29;3(1):e1919940. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.19940. PMC6991285 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31995213/
2020
Wu Y, Kapse K, Jacobs M, Andescavage N, Donofrio MT, Krishnan A, Vezina G, Wessel D, du Plessis A, Limperopoulos C.
Association of maternal psychological distress with in utero brain development in fetuses with congenital heart disease.
JAMA Pediatrics. 2020 Jan 13;174(3):e195316. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2019.5316 PMCID: PMC6990726 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31930365/