The Journal of Cardiovascular Aging Webinar Series :
Eric Olson, Ph.D. Lectureship
Title: Regulatory Network of Postnatal Cardiac Maturation: One Chamber at a Time

Dr. Yibin Wang is an eminent scientist and a pioneering investigator in the intracellular signaling networks that govern the response of the heart to internal and external stimuli. His seminal discovery of the role of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinases in cardiac hypertrophy and apoptosis about 3 decades ago established him as a rising star in cardiovascular sciences. He followed his initial discovery by delineation the roles of additional members of the MAPK family, which established the pathway as a major regulator of cardiac myocyte hypertrophy, proliferation, and apoptosis.

Dr. Wang received his undergraduate education (biochemistry) at Fudan University, China, and his Ph.D. in molecular genetics and cell biology under the supervision of Dr. Savio Woo from Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas through the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Pre-Doctoral Fellowship. He was recruited by Nobel Prize laureate Gerald M. Edelman to The Scripps Research Institute at La Jolla, California, and subsequently by Dr. Kenneth R. Chen to the University of California at San Diego, both as a post-doctoral fellow.

After a 5-year tenure at the Department of Physiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Dr. Wang joined the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA to lead the Cardiovascular Theme as the Chair. He was appointed as Professor of Molecular Medicine, Vice Chair for Research, and Director of the Division of Molecular Medicine. Dr. Wang also served as the Education Director of Cardiovascular Research Laboratories and Vice Chair of the Molecular, Cellular and Integrated Physiology Ph.D. program at UCLA. In 2021, Dr. Wang was selected to lead the Signature Program in Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases as the Director at the Duke-NUS Medical School.

Dr. Wang’s extensive experience in molecular genetics, biology, and integrated genomics ushered in the new phase of his research discoveries, including the delineation of the role of branched-chain amino acids in heart failure and the metabolic regulation of gene expression through epigenetic reprogramming during cardiac myocyte maturation and remodeling. The discoveries, protected by several patents, are being advanced toward the treatment of patients with heart failure, metabolic syndromes, diabetes, and obesity.

Dr. Wang has disseminated his findings through publications of more than 260 articles in peer-reviewed journals, which have collectively accumulated over 27,000 citations and have garnered him an H index of 92 (Google Scholar). He is among the highly-cited scientists in biomedical sciences. Dr. Wang’s research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the American Heart Association (AHA), and the US Department of Defense, as well as the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health in Singapore.

Dr. Yibin Wang has received numerous recognitions and awards for his scientific contributions, including the 2023 AHA Basic Research Prize. He is a recipient of an Established Investigator Award also from the same organization and was selected to deliver the Thomas Smith Memorial Lectureship at the annual scientific meetings of the AHA. He holds an honorary Professorship from Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China, and was elected as “Thousand Talent Plan”.

Dr. Wang serves as an Associate Editor for The Journal of Cardiovascular Aging, Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology, JACC-Asia, and a guest editor for Circulation. He is on the editorial board of several others. Dr. Wang has been an active member of the NIH study sections and the peer review programs of the AHA, Chinese Natural Science Foundation, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and Swiss National Science Foundation.

Dr. Wang is a member of the leadership council for the Basic Cardiovascular Sciences Council, and a member of the International Committee and the Research Committee of the AHA. He co-chaired the 2012 BCVS annual scientific conference and the 26th World Congress of the International Society of Heart Research. Dr. Wang serves on the scientific advisory committee of several pharmaceutical companies and is the scientific founder of a biotech start-up company.

We are most delighted and honored to host Dr. Yibing Wang as the Speaker at the Eric Olson, Ph.D. lectureship of The Journal of Cardiovascular Aging Webinar series.