Life As A Leading Chinese COVID19 Scientist in America

Monday, March 15, 2021
Program 09:00 AM HKT, Close 10:00 AM HKT
*Zoom login details will be emailed upon registration (ASHK Members Only)      

Under this current political climate, it is unfortunately not an easy time to be a Chinese scientist in America who is helping to leading the fight against COVID19.  Yet, some of the world’s most hardworking and courageous health researchers are calmly taking it in stride and still doing what they can to help us all put an end to this global pandemic.  On March 15, join Asia Society Hong Kong Center as we have the pleasure of virtually hosting one of these remarkable individuals, Dr. Nianshuang Wang, scientist at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.  Originally from Shandong and now based in New York, with academic stops at Tsinghua, Dartmouth, and the University of Texas along the way, tune in to hear his engaging life story and find out what he’s currently up to!

Read SCMP Article: Chinese scientist’s spike protein research paves way for Covid-19 vaccine

Dr. Nianshuang Wang is currently a Scientist at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.  He earned his PhD degree from Tsinghua University in 2014, under the supervision of Dr. Xinquan Wang. During this time, he determined the structural mechanism of MERS-CoV receptor recognition, partnering with Linqi Zhang’s lab in 2014 to isolate the first monoclonal neutralizing antibody against MERS-CoV. Nianshuang went on to do his Postdoctoral Fellowship in Dr. Jason McLellan’s laboratory, where he continued his work studying Coronaviruses. In 2016, employing the concept of “structure-based vaccine design”, he successfully developed a universal method to lock the shapeshifting S protein in the “prefusion” state by introducing two prolines into the protein. These mutated forms of the S protein (called S-2P) demonstrated enhanced stability and immunogenicity. In February 2020, he and colleagues used these mutations to help determine the first Cryo-EM structure of the SARS-CoV-2 S protein. The S-2P technology was successfully applied in at least five major COVID-19 vaccines, including Pfizer/BioNtech and Moderna’s mRNA vaccines, J&J’s AD26 vector-based vaccine, and Novavax and Sanofi/GSK’s recombinant protein-based vaccines. 

Nianshuang recently appeared on an episode of the popular podcast series, This American Life, on December 18, 2020, which you can listen to here.

Got Questions? Ask them here in advance (beginning March 9) or during the program (#14111)