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Xiao Wang is a core institute member and the Edward Scolnick Professor of the Ó³»­´«Ã½ of MIT and Harvard and an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry at MIT. At the Ó³»­´«Ã½, she develops and applies new chemical, biophysical, and genomic tools to better understand brain function and dysfunction at the molecular level. 

Wang joined the Ó³»­´«Ã½ after conducting postdoctoral research at Stanford University with Professor Karl Deisseroth, where she was a postdoctoral fellow of the Life Sciences Research Foundation. At Stanford, she developed comprehensive methods for analyzing RNA in intact tissues that merge sequencing with imaging, in order to reveal the locations of various cell types in the brain and to find out how these cells are connected. Wang is also a recipient of a Merkin Institute Fellowship at the Ó³»­´«Ã½.

Wang received her B.S. in chemistry and molecular engineering from Peking University in 2010, where she studied with Professor Jian Pei and helped develop fluorescent organic materials. She received her Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Chicago in 2015, where she elucidated the cellular functions of RNA modifications with Professor Chuan He. During her graduate studies, Wang was awarded the Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad and the Elizabeth R. Norton Prize for Excellence in Research in Chemistry. 

Photo credit: Sergei Chumakov