Biography

Dr. Wang is an Assistant Professor of the Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Imaging and the Institute of Molecular Medicine. She is also an Interim Director of the Research Department Laboratory of Cizik School of Nursing.  She received her M.D. from Southeast University, China, and Ph.D. from University of Kiel, Germany where her work focused on transplantation immunology. She started her postdoctoral training at Baylor College of Medicine concentrated on hematopoietic stem cell differentiation, cancer immunotherapy, and gene therapy. Her current research focuses on biomarker discovery and aptamer-mediated targeted imaging and therapy. She joined UT Health IMM in 2008 and became an assistant professor in 2016. In January 2019, she joined the Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Imaging.

Education

Medical School, MD
Medicine, Southeast University, Nanjing, China, 1986
Graduate Education, MS
Toxicology, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China, 1990
Graduate Education, PhD
Immunology, University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany, 1997
Postgraduate Training, Post Doc Fellowship
Hematology/Oncology, Baylor College of Medicine, 1998-2001

Areas of Interest

Research Interests

Current Grant Support (include project title, P.I., funding agency, award period and amount)

Title:  Identify Proteomic Biomarkers for Outcome Prediction of Lipiodol TACE Treatment
My role: Subcontract P.I
Grant PI: Anil Pillai (UT Southwestern)
Society of Interventional Oncology
02/01/2021-10/01/2024
$100,000

Title:  Management of Chronic Low Back Pain in Older Adults Using Auricular Point
My role: Co-Investigator
Grant PI: Chao Hsing Yeh
NIH/DHHS (NIA)
05/01/2022-04/30/2024
$462,721

Title:  Auricular Point Acupressure to Manage Chemotherapy Induced Neuropathy
My role: Co-Investigator
Grant PI: Chao Hsing Yeh
NIH/DHHS (NCI)
10/01/2022-05/31/2025

Title:  Pathogenesis, Transmission and Detection of zoonotic prion diseases
My role: Co-Investigator
Grant PI: Claudio Soto
NIH
03/11/2022-02/28/2027
$2,558,112

Past Grant Support (include project title, P.I., funding agency, award period and amount)

Title:  Artificial Intelligence Improves Liver Cancer Screenings in Texas
My role: PI
CCTS PI: David McPherson
NIH / Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences [CCTS]
10/01/2022-12/31/2023
$30,000

Title:  GLP-1 therapy: the role of IL-6 signaling and adipose tissue remodeling in metabolic response
My role: Co-Investigator
Grant PI: Absalon D. Gutierrez
NIH/NIDDK R21 (DK122234)
09/10/2019-06/30/2023
$582,075

Title:  Single-cell proteomics to dissect intra-tumor heterogeneity
My role: Co-Investigator
Grant PI: Sheng Pan (PI)
CPRIT HIHR
09/01/2021-08/31/2023
$250,000

Current Clinical Studies

  • HSC-MS-21-0454 – Identify Proteomic Biomarkers for Outcome Prediction of Lipiodol TACE 
  • HSC-SN-21-1085 – Auricular Point Acupressure to Manage Chemotherapy Induced Neuropathy
  • HSC-MS-20-0372 – Artificial Intelligence Improves Liver Cancer Screenings in Texas
  • HSC-MS-19-0618 – Combining blood and imaging biomarkers for precision treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma 
  • HSC-MS-19-0787 – GLP-1 Therapy: The Role of IL-6 Signaling and Adipose Tissue Remodeling in Metabolic Response
  • HSC-MS-18-0509 – Identify Effective Biomarkers for Hepatocellular Carcinoma
  • HSC-MS-17-1077 – Identify Effective Biomarkers for Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Pilot Study
  • HSC-MS-15-0915 – Morphologically-Based Aptamer Selecti

Publications

**Faculty profiles will only highlight current information (the last three years). Please request the faculty’s CV for more information.

PUBLICATIONS:

Abstracts (*indicate abstracts presented at meetings)

  1. Wang H. Selection and Characterization of X-aptamers Targeting Thy-1 Membrane Glycoprotein in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma. Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Imaging, Research Retreat, May 2023, McGovern Medical School, UT Health Houston, Texas.
  2. Wang H, Costello A, Li X, Volk DE, Pillai AK. Selection and Characterization of Truncated Vimentin Binding Aptamers.  26th Annual Meeting of American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy. Los Angeles, CA, May 16-20, 2023.
  3. Yeh CH (in memory), Wang H, Lukkahatai N, Huang X, Wu H, Cho YM, Zhang J, Sun X, Smith TJ. Effect of Auricular Point Acupressure on Pain and Inflammatory Markers among Older Adults with Chronic Low Back Pain. Society for Integrative Oncology 20th International Conference, Alberta, Canada, September 14-16, 2023.

Refereed Original Articles in Journals

  1. Wang Y, Zhao W, Ross A, You L, Wang H, Zhou X. Revealing chronic disease progression patterns using Gaussian process for stage inference. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2024 Jan 18;31(2):396-405. doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocad230. PMID: 38055638; PMCID: PMC10797260.
  2. Hamidi V, Wang H, Pham V, Bermudez Saint Andre K, Taegtmeyer H, Gutierrez AD. Chronic GLP1 therapy reduces postprandial IL6 in obese humans with prediabetes. Cardiovasc Endocrinol Metab. 2024 Jan 4;13(1):e0298. doi: 10.1097/XCE.0000000000000298. PMID: 38187405; PMCID: PMC10769508.

Other Professional Communications

Presentations (by local, regional, national, international)

  1. Wang H. Selection and Characterization of X-aptamers Targeting Thy-1 Membrane Glycoprotein in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma. Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Imaging, Research Retreat, May 2023, McGovern Medical School, UT Health Houston, Texas.

Curriculum Vitae

ACADEMIC & ADMINISTRATIVE APPOINTMENTS:

  • Research Assistant Professor, 2016-present

Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Imaging, McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, Houston, TX

  • Interim Director, 2019-present

Research Department Laboratory, Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth, Houston, TX

EDITORIAL POSITIONS:

Editorial board:

  • Bioengineering. Guest Editor of the Special Issue “Next Generation Aptamers and Targeted Immunotherapy”. October, 2023