Distinguished Professor

Personal Statement:

Dr. Lei Wang earned his Ph.D. from the Department of Molecular, Cell & System Biology at the University of California Riverside. Dr. Wang did his postdoctoral training at the City of Hope National Medical Center, Department of Immuno-Oncology. Prior to his doctoral degree, he obtained his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Hong Kong University of Science & Technology. Before he joined Shenzhen University International Cancer Center, Dr. Wang worked at the City of Hope as Staff Scientist.

Dr. Wang closely collaborated with clinical doctors to explore the systemic immunity changes in cancer patients induced by primary tumor development. He has revealed the prognostic significance of tumor-induced functional changes on peripheral blood T cells (Wang L, et al., Cancer Res. 2017). He developed a novel blood test to evaluate the intratumoral immunosuppressive potential and to predict the risk of future recurrence among patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer (Wang L, et al., Nat. Immunol. 2019). By using single-cell sequencing and high-parameter flow cytometry, he continues his translational medical research to develop novel non-invasive blood test to evaluate the systemic immune status and to identify predictive biomarkers for immunotherapies. His research works have published in peer-reviewed journals including Nature Immunology and Cancer Research. 

Research Interests:

Immuno-Oncology

Selected Peer-reviewed Publications:

1. Wang L, Simons D, Lu X, Tu T, Avalos C, Chang A, Dribas F, Yim J, Waisman J and Lee P. Breast cancer induces systemic immune changes on cytokine signaling in peripheral blood monocytes and lymphocytes. EBioMedicine, 2020, 52(102631).

2. Wang L, Simons D, Lu X, Tu T, Solomon S, Wang R, Rosario A, Avalos C, Schmolze D, Yim J, Waisman J and Lee P. Connecting blood and intratumoral Treg cell activity in predicting future relapse in breast cancer. Nature Immunology, 2019, 20(9):1220-1230.    

3. Wang L#, Miyahira A#, Simons D, Lu X, Chang A, Wang C, Suni M, Maino V, Dirbas F, Yim J, Waisman J and Lee P. IL-6 signaling in peripheral blood T cells predicts clinical outcome of breast cancer. Cancer Research, 2017, 77(5):1119-1126.

4. Wang L, Li WF, Lin MQ, Garcia M, Mulholland D, Lilly M and Martins-Green M. Luteolin, ellagic acid and punicic acid are natural products that inhibit prostate cancer metastasis. Carcinogenesis, 2014, 35(10):2321-2330.