Team Details

Prof. Dr. Han-Ching WANG

From the first year of her Master's degree in 2000 to completion of her PhD at National Taiwan University in early 2007, Dr. Wang's research work has emphasized the use of proteomics and structural biology to study pathogenesis of a large, novel, dsDNA shrimp virus called white spot syndrome virus (WSSV). In early 2007, she transferred to the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, where she switched her research field to shrimp immunity, using animal models and transcriptomics. In 2008, she became the youngest member of the faculty at National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan and established her own lab, the Lab of Translational Aquabiology (TLAB). Dr. Wang's motivation is that whereas shrimp aquaculture is one of the most important economic activities in East Asia, it is severely threatened by pathogenic diseases, including those caused by viruses (e.g. white spot disease; WSD) and bacteria, in particular, acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (AHPND). She uses an integrated systems-biology approach including metabolomics and lipodomics to study pathogenesis of WSD and AHPND. She also discovered Down syndrome cell adhesion molecule (Dscam), the first antibody-like molecule identified in shrimp, and she has a goal of using a science-based approach to optimize potential shrimp vaccine strategies. She believes that this is very important, both for science and also for the shrimp aquaculture industry. Currently, Dr. Wang is an editorial broad member of two well-regarded scientific journals, Developmental and Comparative Immunology (DCI) and Fish and Shellfish Immunology. She also serves as one of 5 board members of International Society of Fish and Shellfish Immunology. She is chair of the Nimaviridae Study Group of International Committee for the Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) since 2012 and an observer on the Executive Committee of the Fish Health Section (FHS), Asian Fisheries Society (AFS) Executive Committee since 2014.