Ruoning Wang
Showed as first author, in Douglas Green's lab, that the transcription factor Myc drives the metabolic switch of activated T cells, and now leads an immunometabolism lab
Principal Investigator · Nationwide Children's Hospital – Professor of Pediatrics, Ohio State University
Center for Childhood Cancer, Abigail Wexner Research Institute, Nationwide Children's Hospital & Dept. of Pediatrics, Ohio State University College of Medicine (Columbus, Ohio, USA) ↗ Bluesky@ruoning-wang.bsky.social ↗
As a researcher in Douglas Green's laboratory at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Ruoning Wang first-authored the 2011 Immunity paper confirmed here, showing that of the two top candidate transcription factors induced by T-cell activation, only Myc was required for the glycolytic and glutaminolytic burst that fuels T-cell proliferation. This became one of the founding papers of the immunometabolism field, establishing Myc (alongside mTOR) as a master regulator of the metabolic switch accompanying lymphocyte activation.
He has since become an independent principal investigator, leading his own lab in the Center for Childhood Cancer at Nationwide Children's Hospital while holding a professorship in Pediatrics at Ohio State University, extending this trajectory into metabolic checkpoints, immune-cell metabolism, and pediatric cancer.
Milestones in the Atlas
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | A | The transcription factor Myc controls metabolic reprogramming upon T lymphocyte activation WAN2011 First author; identified Myc as the transcription factor required for the glycolytic/glutaminolytic metabolic reprogramming of activated T cells, a foundational immunometabolism finding. |