About

Wang, Dong is a Principal Investigator at the University of California San Diego, affiliated with the Division of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the School of Medicine. He is also an affiliated faculty member in the Molecular Biophysics Training Program, the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program, and the Cancer Biology Program at Moores Cancer Center. Dr. Wang completed his postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University School of Medicine and earned his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His educational background includes a B.S. from Peking University. His research focuses on molecular biophysics and cellular mechanisms, contributing to the understanding of complex biological systems through his interdisciplinary expertise.

Research topics

• Biology
• Computational biology
• Neuroscience
• Anatomy
• Cell biology
• Cartography
• Genetics
• Evolutionary biology
• Geography
• Medicine
• Environmental health

Selected publications

• Advances and prospects for the Human BioMolecular Atlas Program (HuBMAP)

  Nature Cell Biology · 2023 · 170 citations

  • Computational biology
  • Cell biology
  • Biology
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Comparative cellular analysis of motor cortex in human, marmoset and mouse

  Nature · 2021 · 818 citations

  • Biology
  • Genetics
  • Computational biology

  . Here, using high-throughput transcriptomic and epigenomic profiling of more than 450,000 single nuclei in humans, marmoset monkeys and mice, we demonstrate a broadly conserved cellular makeup of this region, with similarities that mirror evolutionary distance and are consistent between the transcriptome and epigenome. The core conserved molecular identities of neuronal and non-neuronal cell types allow us to generate a cross-species consensus classification of cell types, and to infer conserved properties of cell types across species. Despite the overall conservation, however, many species-dependent specializations are apparent, including differences in cell-type proportions, gene expression, DNA methylation and chromatin state. Few cell-type marker genes are conserved across species, revealing a short list of candidate genes and regulatory mechanisms that are responsible for conserved features of homologous cell types, such as the GABAergic chandelier cells. This consensus transcriptomic classification allows us to use patch-seq (a combination of whole-cell patch-clamp recordings, RNA sequencing and morphological characterization) to identify corticospinal Betz cells from layer 5 in non-human primates and humans, and to characterize their highly specialized physiology and anatomy. These findings highlight the robust molecular underpinnings of cell-type diversity in M1 across mammals, and point to the genes and regulatory pathways responsible for the functional identity of cell types and their species-specific adaptations.

  DOI

• A multimodal cell census and atlas of the mammalian primary motor cortex

  Nature · 2021 · 564 citations

  • Neuroscience
  • Biology
  • Computational biology

  . First, our study reveals a unified molecular genetic landscape of cortical cell types that integrates their transcriptome, open chromatin and DNA methylation maps. Second, cross-species analysis achieves a consensus taxonomy of transcriptomic types and their hierarchical organization that is conserved from mouse to marmoset and human. Third, in situ single-cell transcriptomics provides a spatially resolved cell-type atlas of the motor cortex. Fourth, cross-modal analysis provides compelling evidence for the transcriptomic, epigenomic and gene regulatory basis of neuronal phenotypes such as their physiological and anatomical properties, demonstrating the biological validity and genomic underpinning of neuron types. We further present an extensive genetic toolset for targeting glutamatergic neuron types towards linking their molecular and developmental identity to their circuit function. Together, our results establish a unifying and mechanistic framework of neuronal cell-type organization that integrates multi-layered molecular genetic and spatial information with multi-faceted phenotypic properties.

  DOI

Frequent coauthors

• Kun Zhang

  Second Hospital of Shanxi Medical University

  16 shared

• Jerold Chun

  Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute

  14 shared

• Blue B. Lake

  University of California, San Diego

  12 shared

• Carter R. Palmer

  Discovery Institute

  12 shared

• Christine S. Liu

  Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute

  12 shared

• Andrew L. Ko

  12 shared

• Brian Kalmbach

  Allen Institute for Brain Science

  12 shared

• Jonathan T. Ting

  Allen Institute for Brain Science

  11 shared

Labs

• Wang LABPI

Education

• Ph.D., Pharmaceutical Sciences

  University of California, San Diego

  2005

• M.S., Pharmaceutical Sciences

  University of California, San Diego

  2001

• B.S., Chemistry

  University of Science and Technology of China

  1998

Awards & honors

• MIT Anna Fuller Fund Graduate Fellowship Award (2002-2003)
• Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Special Fellow Award (2007-2008)
• NIH Pathway to Independence Award (2008-2012)
• The Sidney Kimmel Foundation for Cancer Research Kimmel Scho…
• OKeanos-CAPA Young Investigator Award at the Chemical and Bi…

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