Research Summary

Lei Wang received BS and MS from Peking University mentored by Zhongfan Liu, and PhD from UC Berkeley mentored by Peter G. Schultz. His graduate research resulted in the first expansion of the genetic code to include unnatural amino acids (Uaas) in 2001, for which he was awarded the Young Scientist Award by the journal Science. After postdoctoral training with Roger Y. Tsien, Wang started his group at the Salk Institute in 2005, and moved to UCSF in 2014. Wang’s group has developed new methods for the expansion of the genetic code in a variety of cells and model organisms, including mammalian cells, stem cells, C. elegans, and recently embryonic mouse. His group discovered that release factor one (RF1) is nonessential in E. coli, and engineered autonomous bacteria capable of incorporating Uaas at multiple sites with high efficiency. By developing the concept of proximity-enabled bioreactivity, Wang’s group designed and demonstrated that a new class of Uaas, the bioreactive Uaas, can be genetically encoded in live systems. These bioreactive Uaas enable novel covalent bonding abilities to be specifically introduced into proteins and biosystems, opening the door for new protein engineering and biological research in vivo. Wang is a 2006 Beckman Young Investigator, a 2006 Searle Scholar, a 2008 National Institutes of Health Director’s New Innovator Award recipient, and the 2021 Emil Thomas Kaiser Award recipient of the Protein Society.

Education

  • Peking University, Beijing, BS, 1994, Organic Chemistry
  • Peking University, Beijing, MS, 1997, Physical Chemistry
  • University of California, Berkeley, PhD, 2002, Bioorganic Chemistry
  • University of California, San Diego, Postdoctoral, 2005, Molecular Biology & Pharmacology 

Honors & Awards

  • 2002
    Collegiate Inventor, US National Inventors Hall of Fame
  • 2003
    Young Scientist Award - Science, American Association for the Advancement of Science
  • 2003-05
    Merck Fellow, Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation
  • 2004
    San Diego BioPharma Award, Sino-American Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical Professional Association and American Chemical Society
  • 2004
    Top Young Innovator, MIT Technology Review TR100
  • 2006
    Beckman Young Investigator, Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation
  • 2006
    Searle Scholar, The Chicago Community Trust
  • 2007
    Career Development Award, Ray Thomas Edwards Foundation
  • 2008
    New Faculty Award, California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
  • 2008
    Basil O’Connor Starter Scholar, March of Dimes Foundation
  • 2008
    NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, National Institutes of Health
  • 2021
    Emil Thomas Kaiser Award, the Protein Society

Selected Publications

  1. Wang S, Faucher FF, Bertolini M, Kim H, Yu B, Cao L, Roeltgen K, Lovell S, Shanker V, Boyd SD, Wang L, Bartenschlager R, Bogyo M. Identification of Covalent Cyclic Peptide Inhibitors Targeting Protein-Protein Interactions Using Phage Display. J Am Chem Soc. 2025 Mar 05; 147(9):7461-7475.  View on PubMed
  2. Cao L, Yu B, Klauser PC, Zhang P, Li S, Wang L. Arginine Accelerates Sulfur Fluoride Exchange and Phosphorus Fluoride Exchange Reactions between Proteins. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2024 Nov 18; 63(47):e202412843.  View on PubMed
  3. Cao L, Wang L. Biospecific Chemistry for Covalent Linking of Biomacromolecules. Chem Rev. 2024 Jul 10; 124(13):8516-8549.  View on PubMed
  4. Cao L, Yu B, Li S, Zhang P, Li Q, Wang L. Genetically Enabling Phosphorus Fluoride Exchange Click Chemistry in Proteins. Chem. 2024 Jun 13; 10(6):1868-1884.  View on PubMed
  5. Yu B, Cao L, Li S, Klauser PC, Wang L. The proximity-enabled sulfur fluoride exchange reaction in the protein context. Chem Sci. 2023 Jul 26; 14(29):7913-7921.  View on PubMed
  6. Klauser PC, Chopra S, Cao L, Bobba KN, Yu B, Seo Y, Chan E, Flavell RR, Evans MJ, Wang L. Covalent Proteins as Targeted Radionuclide Therapies Enhance Antitumor Effects. ACS Cent Sci. 2023 Jun 28; 9(6):1241-1251.  View on PubMed
  7. Liu J, Yang B, Wang L. Residue selective crosslinking of proteins through photoactivatable or proximity-enabled reactivity. Curr Opin Chem Biol. 2023 06; 74:102285.  View on PubMed
  8. Li S, Wang N, Yu B, Sun W, Wang L. Genetically encoded chemical crosslinking of carbohydrate. Nat Chem. 2023 01; 15(1):33-42.  View on PubMed
  9. Sun W, Wang N, Liu H, Yu B, Jin L, Ren X, Shen Y, Wang L. Genetically encoded chemical crosslinking of RNA in vivo. Nat Chem. 2023 01; 15(1):21-32.  View on PubMed
  10. Yu B, Li S, Tabata T, Wang N, Cao L, Kumar GR, Sun W, Liu J, Ott M, Wang L. Accelerating PERx reaction enables covalent nanobodies for potent neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 and variants. Chem. 2022 Oct 13; 8(10):2766-2783.  View on PubMed
  11. Klauser PC, Berdan VY, Cao L, Wang L. Encoding latent SuFEx reactive meta-fluorosulfate tyrosine to expand covalent bonding of proteins. Chem Commun (Camb). 2022 Jun 14; 58(48):6861-6864.  View on PubMed
  12. Yu B, Li S, Tabata T, Wang N, Kumar GR, Liu J, Ott MM, Wang L. Accelerating PERx Reaction Enables Covalent Nanobodies for Potent Neutralization of SARS-Cov-2 and Variants. bioRxiv. 2022 Mar 14.  View on PubMed
  13. Wang N, Wang L. Genetically encoding latent bioreactive amino acids and the development of covalent protein drugs. Curr Opin Chem Biol. 2022 02; 66:102106.  View on PubMed
  14. Cao L, Wang L. New covalent bonding ability for proteins. Protein Sci. 2022 02; 31(2):312-322.  View on PubMed
  15. Liu J, Cao L, Klauser PC, Cheng R, Berdan VY, Sun W, Wang N, Ghelichkhani F, Yu B, Rozovsky S, Wang L. A Genetically Encoded Fluorosulfonyloxybenzoyl-l-lysine for Expansive Covalent Bonding of Proteins via SuFEx Chemistry. J Am Chem Soc. 2021 07 14; 143(27):10341-10351.  View on PubMed
  16. Cao L, Liu J, Ghelichkhani F, Rozovsky S, Wang L. Genetic Incorporation of ϵ-N-Benzoyllysine by Engineering Methanomethylophilus alvus Pyrrolysyl-tRNA Synthetase. Chembiochem. 2021 Aug 03; 22(15):2530-2534.  View on PubMed
  17. Berdan VY, Klauser PC, Wang L. Covalent peptides and proteins for therapeutics. Bioorg Med Chem. 2021 01 01; 29:115896.  View on PubMed
  18. Zhou XX, Bracken CJ, Zhang K, Zhou J, Mou Y, Wang L, Cheng Y, Leung KK, Wells JA. Targeting Phosphotyrosine in Native Proteins with Conditional, Bispecific Antibody Traps. J Am Chem Soc. 2020 10 14; 142(41):17703-17713.  View on PubMed
  19. Liu J, Cheng R, Van Eps N, Wang N, Morizumi T, Ou WL, Klauser PC, Rozovsky S, Ernst OP, Wang L. Genetically Encoded Quinone Methides Enabling Rapid, Site-Specific, and Photocontrolled Protein Modification with Amine Reagents. J Am Chem Soc. 2020 10 07; 142(40):17057-17068.  View on PubMed
  20. Li S, Yang B, Kobayashi T, Yu B, Liu J, Wang L. Genetically encoding thyronine for fluorescent detection of peroxynitrite. Bioorg Med Chem. 2020 09 15; 28(18):115665.  View on PubMed

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