"Linking Biocomputation with Nanotechnology for Personalized Medicine"
May Wang
Wallace Henry Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering

12:00 Noon on Thursday, September 7, 2006
TSRB 132

Professor May D. Wang has developed a unique biomedical informatics and biocomputing research program for translational medical research (http://www.miblab.org/). Her group has been researching knowledge-based systems: (1) to identify biomarkers for early diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment; (2) to quantify nanoparticle imaging data of cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. In addition to setting up an integrated high-speed biocomputing infrastructure, her group has also been researching visualization system to support clinical applications. The overall research has been linked with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG). With Microsoft Research and Hewlett Packard Corp as the industrial partners, Dr. Wang's research program has played an essential role in several large research programs at Georgia Tech and Emory such as Bioengineering Research Partnerships (R01CA108468), P20 (P20GM072069), and Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence (U54CA119338).

In this presentation, Dr. Wang will discuss the essential role of computing and computation in personalized medicine, and will illustrate how biomedical informatics and biocomputing, when linking with nanotechnology, can significantly speed up the translational research.

Dr. May D. Wang is an assistant professor of Biomedical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Hematology and Oncology, and Winship Cancer Institute at Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Dr. Wang received BSEng from Tsinghua University (Beijing, China), and MSCS, MSMath, MSEE, and Ph.D.EE from Georgia Tech (Atlanta, GA, USA).

Dr. Wang has worked as a research summer intern and a member of technical staff at the former AT&T Bell Labs, Intel Architecture Labs, Hughes Research Labs, Lucent Technology Bell Labs, and Agere Systems before joining the faculty at Georgia Tech. In 2004, Dr. Wang received the Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Cancer Scholar award. In 2005, Dr. Wang received Georgia Tech Institute Outstanding Research Faculty Mentor Award for undergrad teaching and research. In 2006, Dr. Wang has served as the director for bioinformatics and biocomputing core at Emory-Georgia Tech Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence.