Linghua Wang Laboratory

The Wang Laboratory at MD Anderson Cancer Center is a computational biology research lab. We apply innovative bioinformatics approaches to dissect the tumor ‘ecosystem’, deeply profile tumor cells and cells of the tumor microenvironment as well as tumor-immune-stroma crosstalk at single-cell resolution and in the spatial context. We aim to harness the potential of big data to fight cancer and our overarching goal is to advance our understanding of the cellular & molecular cues underlying early tumorigenesis, disease progression, and the development of therapy resistance and translate our novel discoveries into improved patient care.

Specifically, our translational interest lies in:

• Early tumor development: Identify the earliest events driving tumor progression from precursor diseases; identify signatures and develop models for early prediction of disease progression and outcomes, and identify therapeutic vulnerabilities and targets for the development of effective interception strategies
• Therapy resistance: Identify tumor cell-intrinsic and microenvironmental factors that influence tumor response to anti-cancer therapies, identify signatures and develop models to predict patient’s response prior to treatment, and identify novel targets for the development of effective combination therapies
• Minimal residual disease (MRD): Characterize cancer cells as well as the tumor microenvironment that protects and shelters drug-resistant cells
• Metastasis: Interrogate the cellular and molecular basis of metastases and get a detailed understanding of cancer evolution, interaction and adaptation of cancer cells and various types of immune and stromal cells in different local microenvironments at primary and metastatic sites

The lab has been growing continually since started in 2017 and we now have 17 members. We have been very productive (e.g., Nature 2020; Nature Medicine 2020, 2021; Cancer Discovery 2021, 2022a, 2022b; Cancer Cell 2022, 2023a In press; Blood Cancer Discovery 2022; Molecular Cancer 2022 ; Lancet Oncology 2022; Journal of Clinical Oncology 2022; Gut 2019, 2020; Nature Communications 2021-2022, n=5; Science Translational Medicine 2019; Clinical Cancer Research 2019; Cell Reports 2018, n=2; other studies with significant contributions from Wang Lab include Nature 2022; Science 2021, n=2; Cancer Cell 2020; Nature Medicine 2018; Cell 2017; Gut 2020, 2022, n=2, Molecular Cancer 2019, among many others ) and have built truly collaborative networks and established team-based strategy to tackle cancer. The lab is very well funded with grants from the National Cancer Institute (R01, U01), Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT IIRA), Break Through Cancer (BTC) Foundation, Andy Sabin Family Foundation, MD Anderson Cancer Center Moon Shots Program, and multiple other collaborative grants (e.g., R01, SPORE, DoD, U24, CPRIT).

We’re a happy family! We care and share! We’re seeking highly motivated postdoctoral fellows, computational scientist, and graduate students who love the work we’re doing and are as enthusiastic and ambitious as we are. Check for more details if you’re interested in joining our lab.