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MESSAGE FROM THE CHIEF
Linda M. Reilly, M.D.
Professor & Interim Chief,
Division of Vascular Surgery
Rong Wang, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Surgery and Anatomy
Mildred V. Strouss Endowed Chair in Vascular Surgery
Director, Pacific Vascular Reseach Lab
Director, Vascular Research Lab
Contact Information
Education
- 1980-84, Sichuan University, B.S., Biology
- 1984-88, Graduate School of Chinese Science and Technology University, Inst. of Genetics, M.S. candidate, Mammalian Genetics
- 1988-93, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Ph.D., Biology (Angiogenesis)
Fellowships
- 1994-99, University of California, San Francisco, Postdoctoral Fellow, Cancer Biology
Research Interests
- Angiogenesis Inhibitors
- Neovascularization
- Physiologic, Ischemia
- Developmental Biology
- Gene Expression Regulation
- Embryonic Development
- Developmental Growth
- Arteriovenous Malformations
- Carcinoma, Hepatocellular
- Arteriogenesis
- Notch Pathway
- EphrinB2
- Vascular Development
- Collateral Vessel Formation
- Vascular Physiology
- Stem Cells
Website LInks
Pacific Vascular Research Foundation
Biography
Rong Wang, Ph.D. is the Director of the UCSF Vascular Reserch Laboratory and the Pacific Vascular Research Laboratory. Previously, Dr. Wang had the distinction of being a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Michael Bishop, MD, a winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Chancellor of UCSF. Dr. Wang's team is engaged in state-of-the-art research involving key proteins necessary for blood vessel growth (angiogenesis) and arterial growth (arteriogenesis). They have found that the “Notch 4†protein can cause dramatic blood vessel enlargement in adult animals and that the protein called “focal adhesion kinase†is essential for maintaining existing blood vessel structure. The ability to encourage the growth of blood vessels can increase healing in traumatic wounds, promote recovery from strokes and heart attacks, or generate the growth of new pathways around blocked arteries in the lower limbs to reduce the potential of gangrene and possible amputation.
Selected Publications
- Wang R, Kobayashi R, Bishop JM. Cellular adherence elicits ligand-independent activation of the Met cell-surface receptor. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 93: 8425-30, Aug/6/1996.
- Wang R, Ferrell LD, Faouzi S, Maher JJ, Bishop JM. Activation of the Met receptor by cell attachment induces and sustains hepatocellular carcinomas in transgenic mice. J Cell Biol. 153: 1023-34, May/28/2001.
- Carpenter B, Lin Y, Stoll S, Raffai RL, McCuskey R, Wang R. VEGF is crucial for the hepatic vascular development required for lipoprotein uptake. Development. 132: 3293-303, Jul/2005.
- Carlson TR, Yan Y, Wu X, Lam MT, Tang GL, Beverly LJ, Messina LM, Capobianco AJ, Werb Z, Wang R. Endothelial expression of constitutively active Notch4 elicits reversible arteriovenous malformations in adult mice. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 102: 9884-9, Jul/12/2005.
- Braren R, Hu H, Kim YH, Beggs HE, Reichardt LF, Wang R. Endothelial FAK is essential for vascular network stability, cell survival, and lamellipodial formation. J Cell Biol. 172: 151-62, Jan/2/2006
- Carlson, TR, H Hu, R Braren, YH Kim, and RA Wang. Cell-autonomous requirement for Beta-1 integrin in endothelial cell adhesion, migration, and survival during angiogenesis in mice. Development, 2008 135(12):2193-202.
- He, C, H Hu, R Braren, S-Y Fong, A Trumpp, TR Carlson, and RA Wang. c-myc in the hematopoetic lineage is crucial for its angiogenic function in the mouse embryo. Development, 2008 135(14):2467-77.
- Murphy, PA, X Wu, MTY Lam, TN Kim, S Vartanian, AW Bollen, TR Carlson, and RA Wang. Increased activation of endothelial Notch4 induces and sustains brain arteriovenous malformations in mice. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 2008 In press.