Prof Tao Wang MD, PhD, SFHEA

Overview

Being a previous Cardiologist, my research interest is in the molecular basis of cardiovascular diseases, focusing on genetic small vessel diseases (SVD) and the functions of the causative genes such as NOTCH3, COL4A1/A2, TREX1, in cardiovascular system. We utilise patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) as model system to study a range of genetic SVD in order to understand molecular mechanisms of the conditions, and identify biomarkers and therapeutic targets that could be generalised to the more common and sporadic form of SVD. We are particularly interested in understanding how cerebral vascular pathologies lead to the neurodegeneration and vascular dementia by interrogating interactions between different iPSC-derived vascular and neuronal cell types that form the neurovascular unit (NVU) in the brain. My group is also interested in stem cell related vascular tissue engineering and nano-medicine/nano-targeting. 

Biography

2018 - Now       Professor of Molecular Medicine

2014 – 2018      Senior Lecturer, The University of Manchester

2003 – 2013      Lecturer/Research Fellow, The University of Manchester

2001 – 2003      Postdoc, Department of Medical Genetics, University of Cambridge

1992 - 2001       Postdoc, Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge

1986 – 1992      Physician Cardiologist, the 3rd Hospital of Peking University

1988 – 2001      PhD, the 3rd Hospital of Peking University Health Science Centre

1981 – 1986      Medical student, China Medical University    

Qualifications

1986 MBChB, China Medical University

1991 PhD, Peking University Health Science Centre

2017 SFHEA (Senior Fellow of Higher Education Academy, UK)

2021 FRSB (Fellow of Royal Society of Biology) 

2022 FRSM (Fellow of Royal Society of Medicine)

Memberships of committees and professional bodies

• Member of British Society for Cardiovascular Research
• Member of British Atherosclerosis Society
• Member of the International Society for Stem Cell Research
• Guest Editor: Cardiovascular Disease and Vascular Tissue Engineering (Cells, special issue)
• Managing Editor: Signalling Pathways in Cardiovascular Function and Diseases (FBS special issue)
• Member of Editorial Board: American Journal of Clinical and Experimental Medicine
• Member of Editorial Board: Annals of Stroke and Vascular Neurology
• Editorial Board member: Bioscience Research Institute (BRI)
• Editorial Board member: Frontiers in Bioscience Scholar
• Editorial Board member: Frontiers in Bioscience-Elite
• Topic Editor: Pharmaceutics 
• Member of Editorial Board, Signal Transduction Insights (an online journal)
• Member of Editorial Board (previous), Recent Patents on CNS Drug Discovery
• Overseas Editor for Chinese Journal of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (CJBMB)
• Overseas Editor for Chinese Journal of Cardiovascular Review