2025 Emerging Leader Award Recipient, Chao Wang, PhD
Associate Professor, Arizona State University
Chao Wang is currently an Associate Professor in the School of Electrical, Computer & Energy Engineering (ECEE) and the Biodesign Center for Molecular Design & Biomimetics at Arizona State University (ASU). Prior to joining ASU, he obtained his Ph.D. degree from the department of Electrical Engineering at Princeton University and then worked as a postdoctoral research scientist at IBM T.J. Watson research center.
Dr. Wang is a recipient of the NSF CAREER award (2019) and the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (2022), as well as a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI).
The Wang Lab at ASU explores fundamental science at nanometer scale and solves biomedical problems at the interface of different disciplines and across dimensional scales. His research areas include: (a) exploring new additive and scalable nanomanufacturing approaches for cost-effective production of electronic, photonic, and biosensor devices. (b) designing on-chip integrated nanophotonic structures for sensing and imaging applications. (c) developing near-patient diagnostic platforms for high-specificity, high-sensitivity, and multifunctional detection of molecular biomarkers, including antigens, antibodies, small molecules, and nucleic acids, (d) designing nanofluidic chip for fundamental biophysics studies and applications in manipulation of biomolecules, and (e) establishing low-noise high-speed nanopore platform for portable single-molecular detection and protein sequencing.
Project Overview
Dr. Wang’s project focuses on the development of a fast, low-cost, and easy-to-use test for Lyme Disease (LD) called Nano2RED-LD. This test uses special gold nanoparticles to detect Lyme Disease with high sensitivity. These particles are designed to bind strongly to disease markers and produce a clear signal. The Nano2RED-LD test is designed to detect Lyme Disease antigens and antibodies, aiming to achieve improved diagnostic power for early and widely accessible detection. Dr. Wang first used this Nano2RED method to detect Ebola and COVID-19, showing it could be about 1,000 times more sensitive than the commonly used ELISA test. The goal is to create a simple test that gives results in under 30 minutes and can be used in urgent care settings to quickly identify Lyme Disease.