Welcome to the Wang Lab!

Cells serve as the fundamental building blocks of the human body, and a key objective in life science is to unravel their mysteries: their identity, origins, and fates.

The molecular identity of cells, or “who they are,” has been extensively elucidated through single-cell genomics, specifically single-cell RNA sequencing. Over the past decade, an extensive collection of single-cell data from diverse tissues has been amassed, resulting in an unprecedentedly detailed atlas of cell states.

In contrast, understanding the “where” questions related to cell dynamics and fate decisions has progressed more modestly in the past decade. Tracking the dynamic trajectories of cells requires lineage tracing, a technique involving the labeling of individual cells and profiling their lineage and state at specific time points. Currently, there is a great need for robust lineage tracing methods and reliable computational approaches to extract dynamic information from lineage tracing data.

Affiliated with both School of Life Sciences and the Physics Department in Westlake University, we have assembled an interdisciplinary team comprising individuals with training in life sciences as well as those with quantitative backgrounds such as physics, mathematics, and computer science. With our expertise in data analysis, algorithm development, and the ability to generate lineage tracing data in-house, we are committed to developing powerful and versatile lineage tracing tools that enable the study of cell lineage dynamics in their native context. Additionally, we aim to apply these advanced lineage tracing tools to study various biological questions through collaboration.