Research Faculty

Dr Weizi Wu is an Assistant Professor at the School of Nursing, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong. She obtained her PhD in Nursing from the University of Connecticut and her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Nursing from Central South University. Before joining HKU, she completed postdoctoral training at Yale School of Nursing and visiting research training at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland.

Her research focuses on precision symptom science, with the goal of understanding why individuals differ in their symptom experiences and responses to interventions. She investigates the biological, psychological, and social mechanisms underlying pain, fatigue, and related symptoms, particularly in people with cancer and young adults with irritable bowel syndrome. Her work also examines how early pain and stress exposures influence pain sensitivity and neurodevelopment in preterm infants. Dr. Wu’s research also focuses on HIV prevention and psychosocial health among sexual minority populations. She examines how stigma, interpersonal relationships, and coping processes affect mental health and HIV-related behaviors, as well as culturally responsive interventions, including LGBTQ-affirmative cognitive behavioral therapy, for underserved populations.

Dr Wu combines multi-omics, quantitative sensory testing, neurophysiological measures and wearable sensor data with patient-reported outcomes to characterize symptom trajectories and identify potential biomarkers of response to interventions. Her research program links mechanistic investigation with the development and evaluation of personalized, non-pharmacological interventions, including music-based approaches and digital tools to support symptom self-management.

She serves as the independent principal investigator of a mechanistic pilot study of a music-based intervention for pain in adults with irritable bowel syndrome, supported through an NIH National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health U24 network. Through interdisciplinary collaboration, she aims to translate mechanistic evidence into interventions that improve symptom management and quality of life.