Current Members

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 Xu Wang, Ph.D.  Associate Professor (PI)

Dr. Wang is an Associate Professor of Comparative Genomics in the Department of Pathobiology at Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine (AUCVM), and an Adjunct Faculty Investigator at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology (HAIB). He also holds an appointment at Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station (AAES), and is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Scott-Ritchey Research Center (SRRC).
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Abbi Lynn Lanier, B.S. Research Assistant (Lab Manager)

Abbi Lynn obtained her B.S. degree in Biomedical Sciences at Auburn University in 2022. She joined Wang Lab in June 2023 supported primarily by the DCSITE project. As the lab manager, Abbi Lynn oversees day-to-day lab operations and keeps all equipment in perfectly working order. In addition, she is working on DNA extraction and genome sequencing of the detection dog project, maintaining the Monodelphis colony, and performing sample archiving and data analysis for various research projects. 
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Xiaolei Ma, B.S. Graduate student

Ms. Ma received her B.S. degree in Biological Information Science at Nanjing Medical University. She was admitted to the Biomedical Sciences Ph.D. program and joined the lab in August 2019. She is working on gut microbiome analyses in a variety of organisms, including livestock and companion animals, and she was awarded an Elanco Animal Health Fellowship in August 2023. 
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Yue Zhang, B.S. Graduate student

Ms. Yue Zhang completed her undergraduate degree at Tongji University in June 2020. She was admitted to the Biomedical Sciences Ph.D. program and is an Auburn Presidential Graduate Research Fellowship recipient. She joined us in August 2021, and she is working on Monodelphis domestica as a model for biomedical research and canine placenta genomics.
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Ying Zhang, M.S.  Graduate student

Ms. Ying Zhang received a Master's degree from Ocean University of China in 2020 and a Bachelor’s degree from Anhui Agricultural University College of animal science and technology in 2017. She is awarded a China Scholarship Council Fellowship in 2020. Her research is primarily focus on comparative genomics and evolutionary analyses in the placenta guppy fish family Poeciliidea. Ying is also interested in the  genetics and genomics of parasitoid wasp species as a biological control agent.
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Luke Dawkins,  Undergraduate Researcher

Mr. Dawkins is a junior enrolled in the Auburn University College of Science and Mathematics. As a Pre-Vet Integrative Biology major, he is interested in fundamental and clinical research in animal health. Luke volunteered at the Auburn Raptor Center, and he is enrolled in the Undergraduate Research in Veterinary Biomedical Sciences course to perform fecal microbiome research in eagles and vultures housed at the Raptor Center in the Wang Laboratory. 

Lab Alumni

​Xiao Xiong, Ph.D.   Graduate student (2018-2023)

Ms. Xiong received her Bachelor's degree at Tianjin Medical University majoring in Bioinformatics. She was admitted to the Biomedical Sciences program in 2018 with the Auburn University Presidential Graduate Research Fellowship award. In Dr. Wang's lab, Xiao characterized the genome of parasitoid wasp species in the genera of Nasonia and Muscidifurax, and performed comparative and evolutionary genomic research in the wasp symbionts including Wolbachia, Nosema, ​and other microbes. ​

​Wenqi Cao, Ph.D.   Graduate student (2018-2023)

Ms. Cao received her Bachelor's degree in the School of Life Sciences and Technology at Tongji University in 2018. After graduation, she joined the Wang Lab as an Auburn University Presidential Fellow. She is also the recipient of the Alabama EPSCoR Graduate Research fellowship. Wenqi worked on various projects using the laboratory marsupial model Monodelphis domestica, including genomic imprinting in embryos and evaluation of PFOA and GenX toxicity in this marsupial model. Wenqi obtained her Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Sciences in 2023 and accepted a research scientist position at BGI Hangzhou. 

Haolong Wang, M.S. Ph.D. Graduate student (2019-2023)

Mr. Haolong Wang earned his master's degree at Ocean University of China in 2019 and his Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Sciences in Wang Lab in 2023. He worked on a number of projects, including catfish genome-assisted selection in catfish and transcriptome analysis of heterosis in hybrid catfish. Haolong currently works for WuXi AppTec, a global pharmaceutical company in Shanghai. 

Jerry Lin Undergraduate researcher (2019-2020)

Jerry is a talented undergraduate student at Columbus State University, majoring in Chemistry and minoring in Biology and Mathematics. He joined lab in May 2019 as an NSF-funded Bioinformatics REU student. He worked on jewel wasp genome analysis and annotation, including characterizing the mitochondrial genomes from five jewel wasp species using bioinformatic, comparative genomic and phylogenomic approaches. Jerry is currently a Ph.D. student in the UPenn Bioengineering graduate program at the Wistar Institute. 

Jinbin Wang, Ph.D. Visiting Scholar (2019-2020)

Dr. Jinbin Wang is an Associate Professor in the Biotechnology Research Institute at Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences (SAAS). His expertise is in food science, ecological environmental safety and agricultural genetics and breeding. He visited us from August 2019 to July 2020 and did a genome sequencing project in the parasitoid jewel wasp species Nasonia vitripennis related to mtDNA and Wolbachia characterization. 

Gloria (Xiaozhu) Wang, Ph.D.  Postdoc (2017-2019)

Gloria worked on the jewel wasp and Wolbachia genome sequencing and evolutionary analyses projects.  She was also involved in the research with the AUCVM canine performance sciences program.  During her time in the Wang Lab, she published 3 first-author and 3 co-authored papers.  In September 2019, she accepted a job at Stanford University School of Medicine as a data scientist. She is currently working at Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine.

Daniel Son  Undergraduate researcher (2018)

Daniel joined the lab in May 2018 as a junior in Animal Sciences, working on Nasonia line maintenance and curing Wolbachia infection in the jewel wasp Nasonia oneida. He took the Undergraduate Research in Veterinary Biomedical Sciences course (VBMS4980) in Fall 2018. 

Gabriel Touliatos  Undergraduate researcher (2017-2018)

Gabe did his undergraduate research project in Veterinary Biomedical Sciences as a senior in the lab. He designed and performed Pyrosequencing to genotype recessive disease mutations to determine heterozygous carries in Auburn University dogs.