Wilson Wong, PhD
Associate Professor
Boston University College of Engineering
Biomedical Engineering

PhD, University of California, Los Angeles
BS, University of California, Berkeley



Wilson Wong is an Assistant Professor for Biomedical Engineering at Boston University. He obtained his PhD in chemical engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles and his Bachelor's in chemical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. His research interests are in applying metabolic engineering and immune cell engineering to rapidly and predictably engineer desired properties in human immune cells to treat diseases.

The Wong lab is a DESIGN driven lab where they apply synthetic biology to engineer desired properties in mammalian cells, with application in understanding cellular design principle and to treat diseases. One area that they are interested in is engineering genetic circuits to improve the efficacy and safety of adoptive T cell therapy. Here they are interested in using synthetic biology to design and construct novel signaling, transcription, and metabolic networks in cells for application in medicine and understanding design principles in living organisms. Specifically, they are interested in engineering human immune cells for adoptive cancer immunotherapy. Adoptive immunotherapy is a promising therapy for treatment of various cancers (1). Their goal at the Wong Lab is to engineer immune cells to enhance their disease fighting capability while minimizing adverse side effect. Also, by building novel networks inside immune cells, they can explore design principles by mapping network architecture to phenotype.


Modified saRNA Encoded BiTEs for Lung Cancer
01/01/2025 - 12/31/2029 (Co-Investigator)
PI: Mark Grinstaff, PhD
NIH/National Cancer Institute
1R01CA296810-01

Synthetic circuit technologies for precision control and signal processing in mammalian cells
08/12/2024 - 04/30/2028 (Co-Investigator)
PI: Ahmad (Mo) Khalil, PhD
NIH/National Institute of Biomedical Imaging & Bioengineering
2R01EB029483-05

Engineering recombinase circuits for cellular diagnostic devices
08/01/2024 - 04/30/2028 (PI)
NIH/National Institute of Biomedical Imaging & Bioengineering
1R01EB036085-01

ROGUE-Rx On-site generation Using Electronics
09/16/2024 - 09/15/2027 (Multi-PI)
PI: Wilson Wong, PhD
Carnegie Mellon University ARPA-H (Health)


Development and characterization of self-amplifying RNA Lipid Nanoparticles for potent and multiplex gene expression in solid tumors
07/01/2024 - 06/30/2027 (Key Person / Mentor)
NIH/National Cancer Institute
1F31CA295073-01

Precise tumor targeting with logic CAR circuits
09/17/2021 - 08/31/2026 (Multi-PI)
PI: Wilson Wong, PhD
NIH/National Cancer Institute
5U01CA265713-04

Precise targeting of T1D specific T cells using CAR and peptide-MHC chimeric antigen ligands
05/15/2022 - 04/30/2026 (PI)
NIH/National Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases
5R01DK132576-03

Targeting Fibroblast Discoidin Domain Receptor 2 for Immunotherapy to Pulmonary Fibrosis
12/01/2021 - 11/30/2025 (Subcontract PI)
Regents of the University of Michigan NIH NHLBI
5R01HL156998-03

Multiplexed Optogenetic Control of Mammalian Genome and Transcriptome using Recombinases and Cas13
07/01/2023 - 06/30/2025 (Key Person / Mentor)
NIH/National Institute of General Medical Sciences
5F31GM149163-02

Multiplexed and Logical Control of The Mammalian Transcriptome Using Cas13
09/20/2021 - 06/30/2025 (PI)
NIH/National Institute of Biomedical Imaging & Bioengineering
5R01EB031904-04

Showing 10 of 29 results. Show All Results


Title


Yr Title Project-Sub Proj Pubs
2025 Modified saRNA Encoded BiTEs for Lung Cancer 1R01CA296810-01
2024 Engineering recombinase circuits for cellular diagnostic devices 1R01EB036085-01
2024 Precise targeting of T1D specific T cells using CAR and peptide-MHC chimeric antigen ligands 5R01DK132576-03
2024 Multiplexed and Logical Control of the Mammalian Transcriptome Using Cas13 5R01EB031904-04
2024 Precise tumor targeting with logic CAR circuits 5U01CA265713-04
2023 Precise targeting of T1D specific T cells using CAR and peptide-MHC chimeric antigen ligands 5R01DK132576-02
2023 Multiplexed and Logical Control of the Mammalian Transcriptome Using Cas13 5R01EB031904-03
2023 Precise tumor targeting with logic CAR circuits 5U01CA265713-03
2022 Multiplexed and Logical Control of the Mammalian Transcriptome Using Cas13 5R01EB031904-02
2022 Advanced recombinase-based gene expression technology in mammalian cells 3R01GM129011-04S1
Showing 10 of 19 results. Show All Results

Publications listed below are automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing publications. Faculty can login to make corrections and additions.

iCite Analysis       Copy PMIDs To Clipboard

  1. Lawton ML, Inge MM, Blum BC, Smith-Mahoney EL, Bolzan D, Lin W, McConney C, Porter J, Moore J, Youssef A, Tharani Y, Varelas X, Denis GV, Wong WW, Padhorny D, Kozakov D, Siggers T, Wuchty S, Snyder-Cappione J, Emili A. Multiomic profiling of chronically activated CD4+ T cells identifies drivers of exhaustion and metabolic reprogramming. PLoS Biol. 2024 Dec; 22(12):e3002943.View Related Profiles. PMID: 39689157
     
  2. Frankel NW, Deng H, Yucel G, Gainer M, Leemans N, Lam A, Li Y, Hung M, Lee D, Lee CT, Banicki A, Tian M, Almudhfar N, Naitmazi L, Roguev A, Lee S, Wong W, Gordley R, Lu TK, Garrison BS. Precision off-the-shelf natural killer cell therapies for oncology with logic-gated gene circuits. Cell Rep. 2024 May 28; 43(5):114145. PMID: 38669141
     
  3. Zhang J, Shin J, Tague N, Lin H, Zhang M, Ge X, Wong W, Dunlop MJ, Cheng JX. Visualization of a Limonene Synthesis Metabolon Inside Living Bacteria by Hyperspectral SRS Microscopy. Adv Sci (Weinh). 2022 Nov; 9(32):e2203887.View Related Profiles. PMID: 36169112; PMCID: PMC9661820; DOI: 10.1002/advs.202203887;
     
  4. Wong NM, Frias E, Sigoillot FD, Letendre JH, Hild M, Wong WW. Engineering digitizer circuits for chemical and genetic screens in human cells. Nat Commun. 2021 10 22; 12(1):6150. PMID: 34686672; PMCID: PMC8536748; DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26359-9;
     
  5. Kiwimagi KA, Letendre JH, Weinberg BH, Wang J, Chen M, Watanabe L, Myers CJ, Beal J, Wong WW, Weiss R. Quantitative characterization of recombinase-based digitizer circuits enables predictable amplification of biological signals. Commun Biol. 2021 07 15; 4(1):875. PMID: 34267310; PMCID: PMC8282836; DOI: 10.1038/s42003-021-02325-5;
     
  6. Lin H, Lee HJ, Tague N, Lugagne JB, Zong C, Deng F, Shin J, Tian L, Wong W, Dunlop MJ, Cheng JX. Microsecond fingerprint stimulated Raman spectroscopic imaging by ultrafast tuning and spatial-spectral learning. Nat Commun. 2021 05 24; 12(1):3052.View Related Profiles. PMID: 34031374; PMCID: PMC8144602; DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-23202-z;
     
  7. Kim T, Weinberg B, Wong W, Lu TK. Scalable recombinase-based gene expression cascades. Nat Commun. 2021 05 11; 12(1):2711. PMID: 33976199; PMCID: PMC8113245; DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-22978-4;
     
  8. Tan X, Letendre JH, Collins JJ, Wong WW. Synthetic biology in the clinic: engineering vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics. Cell. 2021 02 18; 184(4):881-898. PMID: 33571426; PMCID: PMC7897318; DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.01.017;
     
  9. Cho JH, Okuma A, Sofjan K, Lee S, Collins JJ, Wong WW. Engineering advanced logic and distributed computing in human CAR immune cells. Nat Commun. 2021 02 04; 12(1):792. PMID: 33542232; PMCID: PMC7862674; DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-21078-7;
     
  10. Bowyer JE, Ding C, Weinberg BH, Wong WW, Bates DG. A mechanistic model of the BLADE platform predicts performance characteristics of 256 different synthetic DNA recombination circuits. PLoS Comput Biol. 2020 12; 16(12):e1007849. PMID: 33338034; PMCID: PMC7781486; DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007849;
     
Showing 10 of 32 results. Show More

This graph shows the total number of publications by year, by first, middle/unknown, or last author.

Bar chart showing 32 publications over 10 distinct years, with a maximum of 7 publications in 2020

YearPublications
20121
20152
20162
20173
20184
20194
20207
20216
20221
20242

2022 Allen Distinguished Investigator Award
2021 National Academy of Engineering: German-American Frontiers of Engineering Invitee
2018 ACS Synthetic Biology: Young Investigator Award
2018 BU College of Engineering: Early Career Research Excellence Award
2016 NSF: CAREER Award
2015-2018 Boston University: Ignition Award
2013 NIH: Director’s New Innovator Award
2013 BU Engineering: Dean’s Catalyst Award
2009 American Cancer Society: Postdoctoral Fellowship
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