I am a Senior Principal Scientist in Research and Early Development, Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolism (CVRM), responsible for setting the research strategy and building a strong early pipeline of projects in heart failure.

A cardiologist by training, I received my medical degree from Shandong University, China, following which I worked as clinical cardiologist and lecturer. After obtaining a PhD in Cardiology from Karolinska Institute, I joined AstraZeneca in 1997.

During my first few years at AstraZeneca, I provided cardiovascular pharmacology support to several late stage projects across therapeutic areas whilst also developing several preclinical models of heart failure. Later, I initiated and developed the cardiac regeneration programme at AstraZeneca. Through my time at the company, I have led many cardiovascular projects including small molecule, protein and RNA projects.

I have also led a number of successful collaborations with academic and industry partners and have published 63 peer-reviewed papers, including papers in high impact journals such as Nature Medicine, Nature Communications, Cell Research and Circulation.

My work is focused on discovering and developing potential new medicines for heart failure patients. Despite therapeutic advances, heart failure remains as life-threatening as most common forms of cancer. Working at the cutting edge of science is what motivates me.

Qing-Dong Wang Senior Principal Scientist, Bioscience, Research and Early Development, CVRM, BioPharmaceuticals R&D

Award

IMED Science Award – Small group (2013)

Award

IMED Science Award – Senior Scientist (2017)

Award

IMED Scientist of the Year Award – People’s Choice Award (2017)

CURRENT ROLE

Senior Principal Scientist, Bioscience, Research and Early Development, CVRM, BioPharmaceuticals R&D

2015-2018

Contributed to advances in the cardiac regeneration field by demonstrating that putative adult cardiac stem cells do not form new cardiomyocytes under physiological condition or after myocardial infarction

2014-2018

Initiated phenotypic screen in cardiomyocytes derived from human pluripotent stem cells and identified promising pro-proliferative compounds and a novel pathway required for cardiomyocyte proliferation

2010

Initiated AstraZeneca’s cardiac regeneration programme and developed its research strategy

  Featured publications

Reassessment of c-Kit+ Cells for Cardiomyocyte Contribution in Adult Heart

He L, Han M, Zhang Z et al. Circulation. 2019;140:164–166

Publication link:https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.119.039909

Genetic Tracing Identifies Early Segregation of the Cardiomyocyte and Non-Myocyte Lineages.

Li Y, Lv Z, He L et al. Circulation research. Publication link: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.119.315280

 

Drug Screening in Human PSC-Cardiac Organoids Identifies Pro-proliferative Compounds Acting via the Mevalonate Pathway.

Mills RJ, Parker BL, Quaife-Ryan GA et al. Cell Stem Cell. 2009; 24(6): 895-907. Publication link: https://www.cell.com/cell-stem-cell/fulltext/S1934-5909%2819%2930108-0

Enhancing the precision of genetic lineage tracing using dual recombinases.

He L, Li Y, Li Y et al. Nature Medicine. 2017; 23: 1488-98.

Publication link: https://www.nature.com/articles/nm.4437

Identification of a hybrid myocardial zone in the mammalian heart after birth.

Tian X, Li Y, He L et al. Nature Communications. 2017; 8:87.

Publication link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-00118-1

An IGF1R-dependent pathway drives epicardial adipose tissue formation after myocardial injury.

Zangi L, Oliveira MS, Ye LL et al. Circulation. 2017;135:59-72

Publication link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5195872/

Long-term self-renewing human epicardial cells generated from pluripotent stem cells under defined xeno-free conditions.

Bao X, Lian X, Hacker TA et al. Nature Biomedical Engineering. 2016;1. pii: 0003.

Publication link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41551-016-0003

Heart regeneration: opportunities and challenges for drug discovery with novel chemical and therapeutic modalities.

Plowright AT, Engkvist O, Gill A, Knerr L, Wang QD. Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 2014,53,4056-75

Publication link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/anie.201307034

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