The Wang Lab is a biomedical research laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin established in January of 2021 and led by Dr. Huiliang (Evan) Wang. The primary research topics of our lab are the development of nanomaterials, electronics, and genetic approaches in neural interfacing, for both neuroscience research and clinical diseases.

News and Highlights

Dr. Huiliang (Evan) Wang wins National ASEE Biomedical Engineering Teaching Award

06/25/2024

Our PI, Dr. Huiliang (Evan) Wang, has won the Biomedical Engineering Teaching Award for the contributions in the field of biomedical engineering education from the 2024 American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference.

Neurawear Team Successfully Completes National I-Corps Program!

05/13/2024

Our team, Neurawear, led by Entrepreneurial Lead Ilya Pyatnitskiy and Technical Lead Leon Hsieh, successfully completed the National I-Corps program. We conducted intensive customer development and are now ready to proceed with further development and commercialization of the wearable brain-computer interface smart clothing system for at-home stroke rehabilitation!

Postdoctoral Fellow Wenliang Wang wins the Best Symposium Presentation Award at MRS 2024

05/09/2024

During the 2024 Materials Research Society (MRS) Spring Meeting & Exhibit, our Postdoctoral Fellow Wenliang Wang won the Best Symposium Presentation Award for his talk titled “Non-invasive and Programmable Molecular Manipulation for Deep Brain Modulation Using Focused Ultrasound.” Congratulations, Wenliang!

PhD graduate student Anakaren Romero has been awarded NSF GRFP Fellowship!

04/05/2024

Biomedical engineering PhD graduate student Anakaren Romero receives the 2024 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships Program (GRFP) Fellowship. Each fellowship provides tuition support and annual stipends for three years. Congratulations, Anakaren!

Dr. Huiliang (Evan) Wang wins the ASEE-GSW Outstanding Young Faculty Award!

03/12/2024

Our PI, Dr. Evan Wang, wins the 2024 American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Gulf Southwest (GSW) Outstanding Young Faculty Award! Congratulations, Dr. Wang, and thanks to Dr. Mia Markey for the nomination!

Ph.D. graduate student Leon Hsieh has been awarded the prestigious University Graduate Continuing Fellowship!

02/26/2024

Congratulations to Leon for receiving the UT Fellowship as a testimony to his academic record as a UT graduate student and his advancements in the development of novel EEG electrodes for wearable brain-computer interface systems!

Dr. Wang received a NSF CAREER Award!

01/04/2024

The award will enable us to develop hydrogen-bonded organic framework nanoparticles for targeted neuromodulation and outreach activities with Austin Community College (ACC). Thanks to the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the support!

Ph.D. graduate student Leon Hsieh has received the Inspire Commercialization Grant from the Texas Innovation Center!

12/02/2023

This grant will enable Leon and the team to further develop a wearable brain-computer interface system for in-home stroke rehab. Congratulations, Leon, and thanks to TIC for the support!

We received a DoD DAPRA Grant!

12/01/2023

The grant will enable us to develop a wearable electronics system for sleep modulation and recording. Thanks to the Department of Defense (DoD) for the support!

Ph.D. graduate student Aaron Tasset has won the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Best Abstract Award!​

11/02/2023

During the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) conference, biomedical engineering Ph.D. graduate student Aaron Tasset received the Best Abstract Award! Congratulations, Aaron!


Postdoctoral Fellow Wenliang Wang is a DBS Think Tank Rising Star Junior Investigator Challenge Finalist!

09/04/2023


Dr. Huiliang (Evan) Wang wins the Young Investigator Award

07/27/2023

Our PI, Dr. Evan Wang, has won the Young Investigator Award from the Gene Delivery and Gene Editing Focus Group at the Controlled Release Society (CRS) 2023 Annual Meeting. Congratulations, Dr. Wang!

Undergraduate student Thomas Wynn has been awarded Patricia L. Johnston Student Research Scholarship!

06/08/2023

Our undergraduate student, Thomas Wynn, has received the Patricia L. Johnston Biological Sciences Student Research Scholarship to continue his research project in our lab! Congratulations, Thomas!

PhD graduate student Brinkley Artman has been awarded NSF GRFP Fellowship!

03/30/2023

Biomedical engineering PhD graduate student Brinkley Artman receives the 2023 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships Program (GRFP) Fellowship. Each fellowship provides tuition support and annual stipends for three years. Congratulations, Brinkley!

We received Alzheimer's Association Research Grant!

11/17/2022

The grant was awarded to develop wearable electronics for Alzheimer’s disease. Thanks Alzheimer’s Association for the support!

Stable Electrodes for Long-Term, Wearable Brain-Machine Interface

10/13/2022

UT Austin Engineering news reported our recent work on “A highly stable electrode with low electrode-skin impedance for wearable brain-computer interface”. Thanks Dr. Jose Millan’s lab and Dr. Yaoyao Jia’s lab at UT ECE for the collaborations. 

Postdoctoral Fellow Jinmo Jeong was awarded Human Frontier Science Program Fellowship

09/01/2022

Our Postdoctoral Fellow Jinmo Jeong receives the prestigious 3-year Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships from Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP). Congratulations, Jinmo!

We received NIH R35 MIRA!

07/12/2022

We are very grateful for receiving the R35 Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) from NIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)!

 

Undergraduate student Christian Gabbert was awarded Hispanic Scholarship Fund

07/02/2022

Our BME undergraduate student Christian Gabbert receives the Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF) for his second time. HSF provides students of Hispanic heritage with financial aid, mentorship, and internship/career opportunities. Check out the organization here: https://www.hsf.net/   

We received Crag Neilson Foundation Grant!

06/01/2022

The grant will enable us to collaborate with Linda Noble’s lab at Dell Medical School to work on Spinal Cord Injury. Thanks Crag Neilson Foundation for this generous support!

 

Undergraduate student Michael Solomon awarded a summer scholarship

05/05/2022

Our neuroscience undergraduate student Michael Solomon receives UT College of Natural Sciences scholarship for continuing his research in our lab during summer 2022. Congratulations, Michael!

PhD graduate student Aaron Tasset awarded NDSEG Fellowship

03/31/2022

Biomedical engineering PhD graduate student Aaron Tasset receives the 2022 National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship Award. Each fellowship provides tuition support and annual stipends for three years. Congratulations, Aaron!

Our first review paper was published in Nanoscale

03/20/2022

Our first review paper, “Overcoming barriers in non-viral gene delivery for neurological applications”, has been published in Nanoscale. Thank you to PhD candidate Diedra Ward and Dr. Nicholas Peppas for their collaboration on this publication. 

We hosted Dr. John Rogers at UT

10/22/2021

The Wang Lab hosted Dr. John Rogers during his visit to UT where he gave a talk on the recent progress in soft, wireless wearables for health monitoring and rehabilitation. 

We received ADPA Research Grant!

09/01/2021

The grant was awarded to develop sono-optogenetics for Parkinson’s disease treatment. Thanks, ADPA, for this support!

We received Welsh Foundation Grant

03/30/2021

We have got the first grant for the lab. Thanks Welch Foundation for the generous support!

Our lab started at UT Austin from 2021!

01/01/2021

Our lab started at UT Austin BME. We are located at the UT Austin BME building.

Recent Publications

Ultrasound-Induced Cascade Amplification in a Mechanoluminescent Nanotransducer for Enhanced Sono-Optogenetic Deep Brain Stimulation                                      W. Wang, K.W.K. Tang, I. Pyatnitskiy, X. Liu, X. Shi, D. Huo, J. Jeong, T. Wynn, A. Sangani, A. Baker, J.-C. Hsieh, A.R. Lozano, B. Artman, L. Fenno, V. P. Buch, and H. Wang, ACS Nano (2023)

  

Design of an injectable, self-adhesive, and highly stable hydrogel electrode for sleep recording                                  J.-C. Hsieh, W. He, D. Venkatraghavan, V.B. Koptelova,        Z.J. Ahmad, I. Pyatnitskiy, W. Wang, J. Jeong, K.W.K. Tang,        C. Harmeier, C. Li, M. Rana, S. Iyer, E. Nayak, H. Ding,                P. Modur, V. Mysliwiec, D.M. Schnyer, B.Baird, H. Wang, Device (2023)

 

Reversible, Covalent DNA Condensation Approach Using Chemical Linkers for Enhanced Gene Delivery                       W. Wang, A. Tasset, I. Pyatnitskiy, P. Lin, A. Bellamkonda,       R.Mehta, C. Gabbert, F. Yuan, H.G. Mohamed, N.A. Peppas,     H. WangNano Letters (2023)

 

Ultrasound-Triggered In Situ Photon Emission for Noninvasive Optogenetics                                                                                         W. Wang, X. Wu, K.W.K. Tang, I. Pyatnitskiy, R. Taniguchi, P. Lin,  R. Zhou, S.L.C. Capocyan, G.Hong and H. WangJournal of the  American Chemical Society 145, 2, 1097–1107, (2023)

A highly stable electrode with low electrode-skin impedance for wearable brain-computer interface                                                  J.-C. Hsieh, H. Alawieh, Y. Li, F. Iwane, L. Zhao, R. Anderson,       S. I. Abdullah, K.W.K. Tang, W. Wang, I. Pyatnitskiy, Y. Jia,               J. Millan, H. Wang, Biosensors and Bioelectronics 218, 114756, (2022)

Ultrasound triggered organic mechanoluminescence materials (Invited Review)
W. Wang, A. Tasset, I. Pyatnitskiy, H.G. Mohamed, R. Taniguchi,  R. Zhou, M. Rana, P. Lin, S.L.C. Capocyan, A. Bellamkonda,        W.C. Sanders, H. Wang, Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews, p.114343 (2022)

Design of hydrogel-based wearable EEG electrodes for medical applications (Invited Review)
J.-C. Hsieh, Y. Li, H. Wang, M. Perz, Q. Tang, K.W.K. Tang,              I. Pyatnitskiy, R. Reyes, H. Ding, H. Wang, Journal of Materials Chemistry B 10, 7260–7280 (2022)

Overcoming barriers in non-viral gene delivery for neurological applications (Invited Review)
A. Tasset, A. Bellamkonda, W. Wang, I. Pyatnitskiy, D. Ward,        N. Peppas, H. Wang, Nanoscale, 14, 10 3698-3719 (2022)

How is flexible electronics advancing neuroscience research?
Y. Chen, N.J. Rommelfanger, A.I. Mahdi, X. Wu, S. Keene,             A. Obaid, A. Salleo, H. Wang, G. Hong, Biomaterials, 268, 120559 (2021)

Sono-optogenetics: a circulation delivered rechargeable light source for minimally invasive optogenetics
X. Wu, X. Zhu, P. Chong, J. Liu, L. N. Andre, K. S. Ong, K. Brinson Jr., A. I. Mahdi, J. Li, L. Fenno, H. Wang and G. Hong, PNAS, 116 (52), 26332-26342, (2019) 

Next-generation probes, particles, and proteins for neural interfacing.
J. Rivnay, H. Wang, L. Fenno, K. Deisseroth,                                 G.G. MalliarasScience Advances, 3, e1601649 (2017)