Taia Wang, MD, PhD, MSCI

Taia Wang is an Associate Professor of Medicine and a faculty member in the Institute for Immunity, Transplantation, and Infection at Stanford University. Her laboratory is defining new mechanisms in antibody and effector cell biology to enhance vaccine responses and improve disease outcomes. She completed the Medical Scientist Training Program at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, earning an M.D. and a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences for her research with Dr. Peter Palese which identified structural determinants of broad influenza virus immunity. Her postdoctoral research with Dr. Jeffrey Ravetch revealed that human IgG glycosylation is highly variable and is regulated by both vaccination and viral infections. Her studies on IgG glycosylation after vaccination demonstrated that CD23 is a receptor for sialylated IgG and modulates the quality of B cell responses following influenza virus vaccination. In viral infection, she discovered that severe dengue disease is correlated with elevations in afucosylated anti-dengue IgG and that these antibodies may contribute to aspects of dengue disease pathology. Using mechanistic in vivo models, she showed that IgG glycosylation can impact the quality of vaccine responses and the severity of infectious disease. Dr. Wang is a translational investigator with formal training in designing and implementing clinical studies at the Rockefeller University, where she earned a Master's degree in Clinical and Translational Investigation. She has received numerous awards, including the Searle Scholar’s Award, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Award for Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease, and the Bravo Family Faculty Scholar Endowment.