Meet the Principle Investigator
Jialiang (Shirley) Wang, Ph.D.
Dr. Jialiang (Shirley) Wang is an Assistant Professor at the Charles Y.C. and Jane Pak Center for Mineral Metabolism and Clinical Research (CMMCR), the Departments of Physiology and Internal Medicine, and a member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center (SCCC) at UT Southwestern Medical Center. She has long been deeply interested in understanding how genetic factors regulate development and how genetic abnormalities lead to human diseases. During her graduate studies, her thesis focused on the role of the transcription factor PITX1 and its regulatory elements in limb development and human limb disorders. Dr. Wang completed her postdoctoral research at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, supported by the NIH/NIDDK NRSA T32 training grant, where she explored the mechanisms by which the transcription factor SP7/Osterix regulates osteocyte formation and osteoporosis. She is a recipient of the NIH/NIAMS Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00), which supports her research using genetic models and multi-omics approaches to study bone development and human skeletal diseases.
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.
Akshay Chellappa
Research Technician II
Akshay graduated from UCLA in 2023 with a B.S. in Biology. At UCLA, he worked as a research assistant in Dr. Thomas Graeber’s lab, studying the plasticity of focal amplifications in mediating drug resistance. After leaving UCLA, he joined Dr. Fei Wang’s lab at UT Southwestern and studied gametogenesis in budding yeast. Akshay is a big sports fan and loves talking about anything related to the NFL, MLB, or NHL!
