RESEARCH
Dr. Wang graduated with a PhD from Cold Spring Harbor School of Biological Sciences in 2012 and underwent postdoctoral training at the Genome Institute of Singapore, initially working to dissect key metabolic networks in cancers, and later focusing on investigating disease mechanisms in glaucoma. He was appointed Senior Research Scientist in 2021.
Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that lead to the degeneration of retina ganglion cells in the optic nerve. As such, it is the leading cause of blindness worldwide. However, how and why this degeneration occurs is not well understood. My lab is interested in deeply understanding the pathophysiology of different glaucoma subtypes in order to find new ways of preventing and curing the disease. Whole exome sequencing undertaken on large patient cohorts are a powerful new approach to find clinically-relevant genetic participants in glaucoma. To this end, we have found recurrent mutations in specific genes that are strongly associated with the risk of developing specific subtypes of glaucoma. To obtain insights in the disease process and understand how these mutations confer risk, we study the functional consequences of these mutations to ascertain their roles in glaucoma.
Selected Publications
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Z Li*, Wang Z*, MC Lee*, M Zenkel*, KLE Peh, M Ozaki, F Topouzis, S Nakano, A Chan, S Chen, SEI Williams, A Orr, M Nakano, N Kobakhidze, T Zarnowski, AP Cherecheanu, T Mizoguchi, S Manabe, K Hayashi, S Kazama, K Inoue, Y Mori, K Miyata, K Sugiyama, T Higashide, E Chihara, R Ideta, S Ishiko, A Yoshida, K Tokumo, Y Kiuchi, T Ohashi, T Sakurai, T Sugimoto, H Chuman, M Aihara, M Inatani, K Mori, Y Ikeda, M Ueno, D Gaston, P Rafuse, L Shuba, J Saunders, M Nicolela, G Chichua, S Tabagari, P Founti, KS Sim, WY Meah, HM Soo, XY Chen, A Chatzikyriakidou, C Keskini, T Pappas, E Anastasopoulos, A Lambropoulos, ES Panagiotou, DG Mikropoulos, E Kosior-Jarecka, A Cheong, YH Li, U Lukasik, ME Nongpiur, R Husain, SA Perera, L Álvarez, M García, H González-Iglesias, AF Cueto, LFV Cueto, F Martinón-Torres, A Salas, C Oguz, N Tamcelik, E Atalay, B Batu, M Irkec, D Aktas, B Kasım, YS Astakhov, SY Astakhov, EL Akopov, A Giessl, C Mardin, C Hellerbrand, JNC Bailey, RP Igo, Jr., JL Haines, DP Edward, S Heegaard, S Davila, P Tan, JH Kang, LR Pasquale, FE Kruse, A Reis, TR Carmichael, M Hauser, M Ramsay, G Mossböck, N Yildirim, K Tashiro, AGP Konstas, M Coca-Prados, JN Foo, S Kinoshita, C Sotozono, T Kubota, M Dubina, R Ritch, JL Wiggs, F Pasutto, U Schlötzer-Schrehardt, YS Ho, T Aung, WL Tam, CC Khor (2021). Association of Rare CYP39A1 Variants With Exfoliation Syndrome Involving the Anterior Chamber of the Eye. The Journal of the American Medical Association ; 325(8):753-764.
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Wang Z*, Yip LY*, JHJ Lee, Z Wu, HY Chew, PKW Chong, CC Teo, YKH Ang, KLE Peh, , J Yuan, LSK Choo, N Basri, Jiang X, Q Yu, A Hillmer, EH Tan, D Tan, Takano A, YS Ho, B Lim and WL Tam (2019). Methionine is a metabolic dependency of tumor-initiating cells. Nature Medicine ; 25(5):825-837