in 2001. After serving her term, she retained her professorship in the Department of Biology, but moved her main affiliation to the School of Kinesiology and Health Science (currently the Faculty of Health Sciences), retiring in January 2015. Despite shutting down her research laboratory, Wu remains active in research. In May 2020, Wu received research funding to collaborate with York University Biology professor Vivian Saridakis, to investigate the hypothesis that variations in the genomic sequences of the virus play a pivotal role in geographic differences in rates of COVID-19 infection, transmission and deaths. Over the decades of her scientific career, Wu has been a visiting scientist and professor at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France (1996) and at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge (2007), where she has been a Life Member since 2008. Research Wu studies how diversity in antigen-specific B-cell and T-cell receptors are generated. As part of her PhD research, she identified a natural mutation in a cell line that inhibited the secretion of immunoglobulins (Ig). Research from her laboratory determined that variation in the strength of V(D)J recombination signal sequence affects the pattern of Ig gene rearrangement and expression. She also examines the role of the immune system in autoimmune diseases and cancers. Wu's research focuses on the mechanisms of normal and abnormal development in the immune system. To this end, her research is directed in two major areas: 1. Understanding normal B Cell development with particular emphasis on the process of V(D)J recombination; and 2. Understanding abnormal development in the immune system with particular emphasis on studying human cancers and autoimmune diseases. Approaches include in vivo and bioinformatics analyses. Personal life Wu married Alan Ming-ta Wu, a fellow graduate student who was in Ernest McCulloch's laboratory. They had two sons, Tim Wu and David Wu. Honours and awards Hardy Cinader Award, 2003 John D. Reynolds Award, 2016 Aventis Pasteur CSI Bernhard Cinader Prize for Research and Education, 2003 Scientist, Medical Research Council of Canada, 1994 - 1999 Scholar, Medical Research Council of Canada, 1989 - 1994 Studentship, Medical Research Council of Canada, 1980 - 1984 Graduate Scholarship, Medical Research Council of Canada, 1968 - 1969 Graduate Scholarship, National Research Council of Canada, 1967 - 1968 References British emigrants to Canada Living people Canadian immunologists Women immunologists University of Toronto alumni McMaster University alumni 1943 births Scientists from London York University faculty University of Toronto faculty