Meet the Team
Current Members
Principal Investigator
Xiao-fan Wang
Donald and Elizabeth Cooke Distinguished Professor of Cancer Research
Professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology
Member of the Duke Cancer Institute
Postdoctoral Training, 1992, Whitehead Inst. & MIT, Cambridge, MA
Ph.D Biological Chemistry, 1986, University of California, Los Angeles
B.S. Biochemistry, 1982, Wuhan University, China
xiao.fan.wang@duke.edu
Postdoctoral Fellows
Ph.D Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, 2022, North Carolina
B.S. Chemistry, Peking University, 2012, China
Kun Xiang
kun.xiang@duke.edu
Joined the Wang lab since 2022, Kun is originally from Changsha, China.
Research interests:
“My current project is to understand the cellular senescence in neurological systems and dementia. I am also interested in tumor microenvironment and memory T cells.”
Awards and honors:
IBIEM fellowship, 2018
Chinese government award for outstanding self-financed students abroad, 2019
Ph.D Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, 2022, North Carolina
B.S. Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles, 2017
Ergang Wang
ergang.wang@duke.edu
Joined the Wang lab since 2022, Ergang is originally from the beautiful Hangzhou City, China.
Research interests:
“The complicated tumor microenvironment involves the interactions between tumor cells and many other surrounding cell type. How the tumor cells crosstalk with the neuron systems especially intrigues me.”
Awards and honors:
Graduated with Summa Cum Laude, 2017, UCLA
Postdoc Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, 2023, Hangzhou China
Postdoc Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology (SIBCB), 2021, Shanghai, China
Ph.D Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology (SIBCB), 2019, Shanghai, China
B.S. Qingdao University, 2012, Qingdao, China
Chengsong Yan
chengsong.yan@duke.edu
Joined the Wang lab since 2023, Chengsong is originally from Linyi, China.
Research interests:
I am quite interested in cancer immunology, especially how T cell function is compromised in the tumor microenvironment. I have studied cholesterol metabolism in tumor infiltration T cells and found that tumor infiltrating T cells were under cholesterol deficiency. Now I am focusing on finding the regulators for T cell infiltration in tumor microenvironment.
PhD Students
Bryan Lim
bryan.lim@duke.edu
Bryan joined Dr. Qi-jing Li’s lab in 2019 and joined the Wang lab after Dr. Li’s move to Singapore in 2022. Bryan is a Singapore native.
Research interests:
“I study how intra-tumoral T cells develop and their anti-metastatic role. Specifically, I am interested in how such T cells can be harnessed in combinatorial immunotherapy.”
Awards and honors:
Frontiers in Cancer Science Conference (FCS 2022) - 3rd prize in poster presentation
NUS Development Grant
Paul and Lauren Ghaffari Graduate Fellowship
Chancellor’s Scholarship
B.S. Life Sciences, National University of Singapore, 2018
Zhehao Ma
zhehao.ma@duke.edu
Joined the Wang lab since 2022, Zhehao is originally from Liaoning, China.
Research interests:
“The potential function of Amyloid precursor protein in pancreatic cancer.”
B.S. Zhejiang University 2016-2020, China