The University of Hong Kong

Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy · Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine

Wei Jia Lab

Systems Metabolism, Gut Microbiome, and Translational Omics

We investigate the intricate molecular mechanisms connecting metabolic disruptions in gut microbial-host co-metabolism to the development of metabolic disorders and gastrointestinal cancer.

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New in CellA microbiome–bile acid axis mediates protection from chronic liver disease in females
Professor Wei Jia, The University of Hong Kong

Professor Wei Jia賈偉

Chair Professor, Vivian Taam Wong Professor in Integrative Medicine

About Professor Jia

Our Focus

Research Areas

We investigate the molecular mechanisms connecting gut microbiota to human health and disease, developing novel therapeutic and diagnostic approaches.

Gut Microbiota-Host Co-metabolism

Decoding the metabolic dialogue between gut microbes and host

LC-MS/MS MetabolomicsMetagenomicsGnotobiotic Mouse Models+1
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BA

Bile Acid Signaling & Metabolism

Bile acids as master regulators of metabolic health

Targeted Bile Acid ProfilingNuclear Receptor AssaysHepatocyte Models+1
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Metabolomics in Cancer Research

Metabolic signatures for cancer diagnosis and therapy

Untargeted MetabolomicsStable Isotope TracingTumor Organoids+1
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Systems Pharmacology

Network approaches to drug discovery and personalized medicine

Network PharmacologyPharmacometabolomicsComputational Drug Discovery+1
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Selected Work

Recent Highlights

Recent research from the lab, including work published in Cell, Cell Metabolism, and Nature Communications.

Cell2026Featured

A microbiome-bile acid axis mediates protection from chronic liver disease in females

Li M, Kuang J, Chen T, Ding K, et al.

Identified isoursodeoxycholic acid (isoUDCA), produced by an estrogen-enriched gut bacterial consortium, as a mediator of female protection from chronic liver disease, using metabolomics data from 9,254 individuals.

bile acidsliver diseasesex differencesgut microbiome
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Cell Metabolism2026Featured

AI-guided discovery and expansion of the human bile acid landscape

Yang T, Yao C, Kuang J, Wang L, et al.

Introduced MetLLM, a transformer-based model, and MetSpace, a landscape of 3,900 prioritized bile acid candidates, confirming structurally novel bile acids in human feces.

bile acidsAIlanguage modelsmetabolomics
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Cell Metabolism2026Featured

Hyocholic acids shape neonatal immune tolerance and microbiota assembly

Zheng X, Wang J, Sun Y, Zhang H, et al.

Showed hyocholic acids make up about half of meconium bile acids, steer neonatal T cells toward regulatory phenotypes, and support healthy microbiome colonization.

hyocholic acidneonatal immunitygut microbiomebile acids
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Nature Communications2026Featured

Amino acid-based biological age clock and its implications for human health and aging

Ding K, Xu R, Chao X, Li M, et al.

Developed AmiAge, an amino acid-based biological age clock built on 18 amino acids and validated across more than 280,000 samples.

agingamino acidsbiological agemachine learning
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Cell Metabolism2026Featured

Targeting microbiota-generated acetaldehyde to prevent progression of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease

Tang Y, Kuang J, Xia X, Yao C, et al.

Linked high dietary sugar, especially fructose, to MASLD progression through microbiota-generated acetaldehyde, supported by UK Biobank data from over 210,000 participants.

MASLDfructosegut microbiomeacetaldehyde
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Cell Reports Medicine2026Featured

Microbiota-metabolome interplay in depression: Metabolic insights and diagnostic potential

Zhao M, Liu P, Pan M, Guo Y, et al.

Mapped gut microbiota-metabolome disruptions in first-episode depression across four cohorts and identified metabolites with diagnostic potential.

depressiongut microbiomemetabolomicsdiagnostics
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Contact

Get in touch with Professor Jia

For research collaborations, prospective students and postdoctoral researchers, speaking invitations and media enquiries, please email Professor Jia directly.

Email Professor Jia

Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy
Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine
The University of Hong Kong
21 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong