Xiaodong Wang (biochemist)
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NAS Award in Molecular Biology
Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine
Richard Lounsbery Award
King Faisal International Prize in Medicine
Xiaodong Wang | |||||||||||||||||
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| 王晓东 | |||||||||||||||||
| Born | 1963 (age 62–63) | ||||||||||||||||
| Education | Beijing Normal University (BSc) University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (PhD) | ||||||||||||||||
| Awards | Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry NAS Award in Molecular Biology Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine Richard Lounsbery Award King Faisal International Prize in Medicine | ||||||||||||||||
| Scientific career | |||||||||||||||||
| Known for | Research of programmed cell death by apoptosis and necroptosis | ||||||||||||||||
| Fields | Biochemistry | ||||||||||||||||
| Institutions | Emory University University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Howard Hughes Medical Institute National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing BeiGene | ||||||||||||||||
| Thesis | Studies on the process of mammalian precursor messenger RNA splice site selection (1991) | ||||||||||||||||
| Doctoral advisor | Richard A. Padgett | ||||||||||||||||
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Xiaodong Wang (born 1963) is a Chinese-American biochemist best known for his work with apoptosis, which is the normal physiologic process of programmed cell death.
Wang was born in Wuhan, China in 1963, and was raised in Xinxiang, Henan by his grandparents. His family was relatively well-educated. His grandfather was a high school English teacher, his grandmother a primary school teacher, and his great uncle a biology professor. His primary and secondary coincided with the Cultural Revolution, and he only started high school in 1978 at a top high school in Henan.[1][2]
He entered the Beijing Normal University in 1980,[1] majoring in biology, and completed 4 years later.[3] His undergraduate thesis supervisor, Shaobai Xue, introduced him to cell biology and biochemistry, and prompted him to pursue postgraduate studies in biochemistry.[1]
Through the government-sponsored Chinese-US Biochemistry Examination and Application (CUSBEA) program, the biochemistry counterpart to CUSPEA, Wang went to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in 1985 for his PhD.[1] The CUSBEA program was initiated by the biochemist Ray Wu at Cornell University and lasted from 1982 to 1989.[4][5] He graduated in 1991.[3]
Career
After obtaining his PhD, Wang moved to the research group of Joseph L. Goldstein and Michael Stuart Brown, also at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW) as a postdoctoral fellow. He joined the Department of Biochemistry of Emory University in 1995 as an assistant professor, then returned to UTSW a year later as an assistant professor at its Department of Biochemistry. He was promoted to associate professor in 1999.[3] In 2001, Wang was appointed the George L. MacGregor Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Sciences.[6]
Wang became an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 1997.[7]
Since 2003, Wang has been an investigator at the National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing (NIBS). In 2010, he ended all his positions in the United States and returned to China to take up the role of director of NIBS.[6]
Wang co-founded two biotechnology companies: Joyant Pharmaceuticals in 2004 and BeiGene, co-founded with John Oyler,[8] in 2010.[9] He currently chairs the Scientific Advisory Board of BeiGene.[10]
Wang chaired the Science Committee of the Future Science Prize in 2017, and currently sits on the committee.[11]
