Andrew Wang, MD

By taking advantage of mechanisms that allow cancer cells to evade immune attack, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have developed a new strategy in animal models that has potential for treating ulcerative colitis. Their findings, reported in Nature Biomedical Engineering, could eventually provide relief to millions of people worldwide who have this or other autoimmune conditions.

“We’re borrowing something that cancer uses for evil and making it into something good,” said senior author Andrew Wang, M.D., Professor and Vice Chair of Translational Research and Commercialization in the Department of Radiation Oncology and a member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern. Dr. Wang co-led the study with first author Kin Man Au, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology… Continue reading.

Physician researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center have developed an innovative nanotherapeutic drug that prevents cancer from spreading to the liver in mice.

The new liver-specific microRNA drug, developed by a team led by Andrew Wang, M.D., is a promising candidate for drug companies that developed messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines for COVID-19, because of similarities in these RNA agents.

“This might be one ray of hope that comes out of the pandemic,” said Dr. Wang, Professor, Radiation Oncology, and author of a rodent-based study published in the journal Cancer Research… Continue reading.

Researchers have shown they can avert the immune destruction of pancreatic beta cells and potentially halt the progression of type 1 diabetes. In autoimmune diseases, the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself, as it does foreign pathogens. In the case of type 1 diabetes, insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas are the marked targets.

As a vital metabolic hormone, insulin is necessary for cells to take up glucose and use it as energy. To regulate this process, diabetics need to monitor their blood glucose levels constantly and inject the appropriate dose of insulin several times per day… Continue reading.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) has announced the induction of Andrew Wang, MD, Associate Professor and Director of Clinical and Translational Research, Department of Radiation Oncology, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, to its College of Fellows.

Election to the AIMBE College of Fellows is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to a medical and biological engineer. The College of Fellows is comprised of the top two percent of medical and biological engineers. College membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering and medicine research, practice, or education” and to “the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of medical and biological engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to bioengineering education.”

Dr. Wang was nominated, reviewed, and elected by peers and members of the College of Fellows for “outstanding contributions in translating advances from nanomedicine and drug delivery research to improving cancer management and treatment.”