Dr. Wang currently serves as an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, as well as an associate scientist at the Ames National Laboratory at Iowa State University. He got his Ph.D. in Chemical and Petroleum Engineering from the University of Kansas in 2010. He obtained another Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Engineering from Wuhan University in 2007. Before he joined Iowa State University in 2012, he worked as Jorge Heller Postdoctoral Fellow in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology of MIT and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Wang has worked as an engineer in a chemical company and a pharmaceutical company before.

Dr. Wang’s areas of interest include Biomaterials, Organoid, Nanotechnology, and Drug Delivery. At Iowa State University, Dr. Wang BOND his research in these areas to explore Organoids using Biomaterials and Nanotechnology for Drug Discovery and Development to improve human health and longevity. His research can contribute to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of a large variety of diseases, such as antimicrobial resistance, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), diabetes mellitus (DM), obesity, oral drug and substance abuse, intestinal infection, HIV/AIDS vaccination, and colorectal cancer. Moreover, the discovery of substrates, pathways and growth factors involved in the differentiation of organoids and stem cells into specific lineages is expected to contribute significantly to the clinical protocols. The multidisciplinary research background enables Wang Lab to accomplish these goals. The ongoing projects include tissue engineering and regenerative medicine using organoids, biomaterials mediated organoids and stem cell reprogramming for drug discovery, organoids and cell-mediated drug delivery, and oral vaccines and drugs targeting the intestinal mucosa. Dr. Wang has successfully administered the projects, collaborated with other researchers, and produced several peer-reviewed publications from each project as documented in peer-reviewed journals. He has 99 peer-reviewed manuscripts in scientific journals. Notably, Dr. Wang is the corresponding senior author or first author in 71 of these papers. He has 37 invited lectures and presentations at different research institutes and premier meetings of professional societies, including the Controlled Release Society, the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, and the Society for Biomaterials. Moreover, 30 peer-reviewed conference proceedings or abstracts have been accepted for poster presentations. His inventions have led to a series of patents. Dr. Wang’s work has been frequently recognized and cited by other researchers worldwide. His personal H-index is 58, and the total citation is over 9000 (Google Scholar).

As a measure of  Dr. Wang’s work in the fields of chemical and biomedical engineering, he has received numerous prestigious awards including the Lloyd Mayer Scholar, McGee-Wagner Interdisciplinary Research Award (ISU), PhRMA Foundation Research Starter Award, Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation Career Award, and NIBIB Trailblazer Award. These awards clearly recognize his contributions to improving the quality of life for humans afflicted with chronic, debilitating diseases. Dr. Wang’s reputation is also recognized by various academic societies as he serves as Editor and Editorial Board member for prominent scientific journals. For example, he is the Editor of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Smart Materials Series. He has served as an Editorial Board Member of the International Journal of Pharmaceutics, and Molecules. He also has served as Session Chair of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual Meeting since 2013. Dr. Wang has been a member of the Finance Committee of the Controlled Release Society and a member of the Publication Committee of the Society for Biomaterials. He also has served as a study section member for the National Institute of Health (NIH) and a panel member of the National Science Foundation (NSF). Dr. Wang will continue to employ his multidisciplinary expertise in the areas of materials science, stem cells, microfabrication, and pharmaceutical chemistry to address and resolve challenging problems of human health.

In addition to pursuing cutting-edge scientific research, Dr. Wang has also committed to a career in teaching, not only in the classroom but also in the laboratory. Since Dr. Wang established his independent lab as a faculty member at Iowa State University, he has supervised three postdoctoral fellows, four graduate students, and over three dozen undergraduates. Dr. Wang is enthusiastic about fostering excellent engineers and researchers from unrepresented and minority students. He has kept the mission in mind throughout his career to enhance diversity and provide equal opportunities to all researchers. Dr. Wang has dedicated himself to engaging all population sectors to solve the emerging biological problems and discover innovative new ways to improve human health. All his graduate students, Zahra Davoudi, Yijun Qi, Prerana Ganguly, and Nitya Poovaiah, are women engineers. More than half of the researchers who have worked in Wang Lab are women, unrepresented and minority students. Recently, Dr. Wang has brought together scientists and engineers who work in different fields of chemistry, physics, biology, materials science, pharmaceutics, medicine, and clinics to write two books “Smart Materials for Tissue Engineering: Fundamental Principles” and “Smart Materials for Tissue Engineering: Applications”. These two books aim to fill this gap and try to introduce new tissue engineering smart materials to a broad audience, from the scientific communities and educational organizations to industrial manufacturers.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

Editor

Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Smart Materials Series, 2014-present

Associate Editor

Frontiers in Biotechnology and Bioengineering (Impact Factor: 5.890 in 2020), 2021-present

Editorial Board Member

International Journal of Pharmaceutics (Impact Factor: 5.875 in 2020), 2012-present

Molecules (Impact Factor: 4.411 in 2020), 2018-present

Other Academic Position

NIH Bioengineering, Biodata, and Biomodeling Technologies (BBBT) M (80) Study Section Member, 2022–present

Society For Biomaterials (SFB), Member of Publication Committee, “Biomaterials for Organoids” Session Chair, “Biomaterials for Regenerative Engineering” Session Chair, 2021–present

Controlled Release Society, Member of Finance Committee, 2021–present

NSF CBET RECODE Panel Member, 2021

Session Chair of Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual Meeting, 2016-2020

NIAID U01 Study Section Member, 2015-2017

NIH SBIR/STTR Study Section Member, 2012-2015

NSF CBET BBBE Panel Member, CBET BME Panel Member, 2012-2013

Session Chair of Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) 2013 Annual Meeting, 2012-2013

Education

Jorge Heller Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 06/2012 (Advisor: Robert Langer)

Ph.D. in Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Kansas, U.S.A., 12/2010 (Advisor: Cory Berkland)

Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Engineering, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Wuhan University, China, 06/2007 (Advisor: Yumin Du)

M.S. in Environmental Science and Engineering, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Wuhan University, China, 06/2004

B. S. in Environmental Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, China, 06/2000

Awards and Honors

NIBIB Trailblazer Award, 2022

PhRMA Foundation Research Starter Award, 2017

Shanti V. Sitaraman, MD, PhD Inflammatory Bowel Diseases Young Investigator Award, 2016

Lloyd Mayer Scholar, 2015

Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation Career Award, 2015

McGee-Wagner Interdisciplinary Research Award, 2014

Top Reviewer of Elsevier, Reed Elsevier Publication Group, 2011

Jorge Heller Postdoctoral Fellow, Controlled Release Society, 2010

Graduate Student Symposium Award, American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, 2010

Excellent Graduate Award, Wuhan University, 2007

Industrial Experience

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries(U.S.A.)              May 2010 – October 2010

Summer internship worked as a formula scientist in orally disintegrating tablets (ODT), oral transmucosal (OTM), and oral powder drug delivery technologies.

Hubei Guangda Chemical Co., Ltd (China)            July 2000 – August 2001

Worked as an engineer and took charge of product quality controls; dealt with the company’s public relationship with local governance.

Professional Membership

SIGMA XI, the Scientific Research Society

American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE)

American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS)

Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES)

Controlled Release Society (CRS)