Meet the Principle Investigator
Jialiang (Shirley) Wang, Ph.D.
Dr. Shirley (Jialiang) Wang is an Assistant Professor in the Charles Y.C. and Jane Pak Center for Mineral Metabolism and Clinical Research (CMMCR), the Department of Physiology and the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Dr. Wang have always been deeply interested in how genetic factors regulate development and how genetic abnormalities cause human disease. During her graduate studies, the major focus of her thesis was to study the function of the transcription factor PITX1 and its regulatory elements in limb development and human limb disorders. Dr. Wang did her postdoctoral research at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School (supported by the NIH/NIDDK NRSA T32 training grant), where she investigated the underlying mechanisms of the transcription factor SP7/Osterix in regulating osteocyte formation and osteoporosis. She is a recipient of the NIH/NIAMS Pathway to Independence Awards (K99/R00) to further utilize genetic models and multi-omics approaches to the study of bone development and human skeletal disease. In 2024, Dr. Wang joined the CMMCR as an Assistant Professor.
Dr. Wang was awarded the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) John Haddad Young Investigator and the ASBMR Harold M. Frost Young Investigator. She is the board member of Advances in Mineral Metabolism (AIMM) and the committee of ASBMR Early-Stage Investigator.
Current Lab Members
Numa Islam
Research Technician II
Numa is from Dhaka, Bangladesh and recently graduated from the University of California, Davis with a Bachelor of Science in Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior. She has always been interested in epigenetics, and previously worked at Dr. Satoshi Namekawa's Lab at UC Davis. In her spare time, she enjoy tackling elaborate baking projects!
Xiang Tian
Postdoctoral Fellow
Xiang is from Henan, China. Throughout her Ph.D. journey, she was trained by Dr. Qun He at China Agricultural University. Her main research project is the mechanism of transcription factor regulation of catalase in Neurospora crassa. In the postdoctoral stage, she will investigate the molecular mechanisms related to skeletal disease and aim to discover prospective therapeutic interventions. Xiang likes running, climbing, and going to the park.
