Yong Wang, PhD

Dr. Yong Wang obtained his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong University in China. He then did his graduate work in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, MO, USA. His PhD work focused on developing and applying electrocardiographic imaging to study cardiac arrhythmia and abnormal heart contractions. Driven by his intense interest in imaging and neuroscience, Dr. Wang switched gears and devoted his postdoctoral training to gaining expertise in neuroscience and radiology. During this time, Dr. Wang invented a novel MRI approach called diffusion basis spectrum imaging (DBSI). He patented DBSI and published papers demonstrating that it could be used to specifically measure and characterize multiple types of white matter microstructural changes. He also showed that DBSI could be used to examine the development of white matter inflammation in patients with neurodegenerative diseases and in animal models of these diseases. As a postdoc and junior faculty member, Dr. Wang collaborated with radiologists and neurologists at Washington University to develop the PET/DBSI system that he is using in his work funded by BrightFocus. Dr. Wang is an assistant professor at Washington University with appointments in Obstetrics and Gynecology, Radiology, and Biomedical Engineering. In addition to his work on AD, Dr. Wang is using his DBSI method and his skills in electrical imaging to ask questions that span the lifespan from the womb to old age.