Dr. Harris H. Wang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Systems Biology at Columbia University in the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. Prior to joining Columbia, Dr. Wang was a Fellow at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and an Instructor in the Department of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Wang holds B.S. degrees in Physics and in Mathematics from MIT and a Ph.D. in Biophysics from Harvard University. Dr. Wang has been developing foundational technologies in automated genome engineering to rapidly endow cells with improved function and new traits. In 2009, Dr. Wang won the Grand Prize in the National Inventor Hall of Fame’s Collegiate Inventors Competition. He is one of ten young investigators to receive the first NIH Director’s Early Independence Award and was named in Forbes 30 under 30 in Science in 2012.

We are interested in understanding the key principles that drive the formation, maintenance, and evolution of genomes within and across microbial populations. We apply new approaches in systems and synthetic biology to address important questions that lie at the intersection of molecular biology, genomics, and evolution. We utilize genome engineering, DNA synthesis, and next-generation sequencing methods to better understand genome evolution and population dynamics of a variety of model organisms and microbial communities under different environments. Furthermore, we aim to develop synthetic approaches in ecological engineering to manipulate disease-relevant microbial ecosystems such as those found on the human body and in the human gut towards ultimately improving human health.

Faculty homepage: http://wanglab.c2b2.columbia.edu/