Award

Wang’s studies are fueled by interest in cells

He has won the 2022 ASBMB Young Investigator Award
Shravanti  Suresh
Dec. 16, 2021

Greg Wang is fascinated by the molecular biology of cells and the many levels of modifications they encompass to regulate gene expression.

“Follow your heart and do what interests you the most,” he said.

Greg Wang

Wang followed his heart from China, where he earned undergraduate and master’s degrees, to the University of California, San Diego, where he pursued basic research to understand how the cell works. During his Ph.D. in biomedical sciences, he showed that nuclear receptor binding SET domain 1, a family histone methylase transferase protein, is directly linked to transcriptional regulation of the Hox-A locus and histone modification dysregulation leading to cancer formation.

Now a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Wang studies a number of chromatin-modulating enzyme machineries and histone reader proteins that have been shown to be critical for chromatin/gene regulation and often altered in disease states. He also studies phase separation of transcription factors, which is critically involved in pathogenesis. For these works, he has been named the winner of the 2022 American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology’s ASBMB Young Investigator Award.

“Whenever you pick a question to work on, the more fundamental and broader the question is, the more you will learn in the process of answering it,” Wang advises early-career scientists. The energy and curiosity of his students and postdocs fuel his fascination for chromatin biology, he said, and those lab members are leading his foray into molecular medicine.

The ASBMB award adds to a growing list of accolades including the Yang Family Biomedical Scholar award and the Phillip and Ruth Hettleman Prize, both from UNC in 2019; the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Scholar award in 2018; and the American Cancer Society Research Scholar award in 2016.

Three projects with a chromatin focus

At the ASBMB annual meeting, Greg Wang will talk about his quest to answer questions in the field of chromatin biology and chromatin’s effect on gene (de)regulation and cancer formation.

Post-translational modification of histones leads to changes in the chromatin, which lead to fine-tuning of DNA-templated pathways. The misregulation of histone modifications can lead to oncogenesis due to misperception in cell identity and deregulation of gene-expression profiles. Wang was among the first to show that the deregulation of certain histone reader proteins is causal for initiating cancer.

The Wang lab also uses small-molecule inhibitors to target enzymes that modify histones. Along with collaborators, they have developed a set of epigenetic inhibitors via proteolysis targeting chimera, known as PROTAC, which can inhibit and degrade target oncoproteins in tumor cells.

Wang is also interested in how cancer cells use phase separation by acquiring mutations. This allows the cancer cells to enhance a genomic targeting of oncogenic transcription factors and to form a distorted chromatin 3D structure during tumorous transformation.

At the annual meeting, Wang will talk about his research integrating these major projects: cellular crosstalk involving chromatin regulation, phase separation that results in 3D chromatin organization and the development of small molecules to target oncoproteins in tumor cells.

Enjoy reading ASBMB Today?

Become a member to receive the print edition monthly and the digital edition weekly.

Learn more
Shravanti  Suresh

Shravanti Suresh is a Ph.D. candidate in Dipali Sashital’s lab at Iowa State University and a volunteer ASBMB Today contributor.

Get the latest from ASBMB Today

Enter your email address, and we’ll send you a weekly email with recent articles, interviews and more.

Latest in People

People highlights or most popular articles

The perfect storm
Feature

The perfect storm

Dec. 6, 2023

The world has 2023 Nobel laureates Katalin Karikó, Drew Weissman and others to thank for laying a foundation for the COVID-19 vaccine decades before the pandemic.

Throw your hat in the ring!
Annual Meeting

Throw your hat in the ring!

Dec. 6, 2023

Apply to speak at Discover BMB in Chicago in 2025.

In memoriam: Charles Kasper
In Memoriam

In memoriam: Charles Kasper

Dec. 4, 2023

He was a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research and an ASBMB member since 1970.

Building a chapter through community
Student Chapters

Building a chapter through community

Dec. 4, 2023

Olivia Miller sought to balance fun, education and outreach in student chapter activities at Otterbein University.

NIH diversity supplements offer a pathway to independence
Funding

NIH diversity supplements offer a pathway to independence

Nov. 29, 2023

These funding mechanisms have been underutilized. The ASBMB public affairs staff offers recommendations to change that.

A chapter builds connections
Student Chapters

A chapter builds connections

Nov. 27, 2023

The ASBMB helped Lauryn Ridley build a community among her peers: “It’s outside the classroom, and you can be free to relate to other people who are going through the same things that you’re going through.”