Dr. Lizhong Wang is a Research Assistant Professor in the Division of Immunology, Section of General Surgery. Dr. Wang received his MD at China Medical University in 1988. He went on to study for his MS in Urology and graduated from the same University in 1996. He received his PhD at the Akita University in Japan in 2002. He had postdoctoral training at the Ohio State University between 2004 and 2006. He also actively practiced clinical work in Urology from 1988 through 2004 in China and Japan. Dr. Wang was a Lecturer in the Department of Urology at Akita University between 2002 and 2004. In July 2006, he joined the faculty at the University of Michigan Health System in the Division of Immunotherapy, Section of General Surgery.

Dr. Wang research interests focus on the molecular genetics of human disease including cancer and autoimmunity disease. He identified that the genetic alterations in human CD24 gene is one of the most important risk factors for development and progression of the multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus erythematosus. The CD24 as a candidate gene will be new therapeutic target for developing new therapeutics of multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus erythematosus. Recently his research showed that the somatic mutation in a novel tumor suppressor gene FOXP3 has an important impact on developing breast cancer. He is planning to investigate the molecular mechanisms of development and progression of breast cancer including genetic alterations of tumor suppressor gene FOXP3 involved in signaling pathways of ErbB2/HER-2.