Michael Wang, MD

Michael Wang, MDl, is the Puddin Clarke Endowed Professor in the Division of Cancer Medicine, Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma, at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Throughout his 20-year career at MD Anderson Cancer Center, Dr Wang's clinical and translational research has produced numerous scientific discoveries. His clinical expertise is in hematological malignancies, including B-cell lymphoma and multiple myeloma. His research on currently incurable mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) has led to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of 2 BTK inhibitors (ie, ibrutinib and acalabrutinib) for relapsed/refractory MCL. He leads an international trial introducing CAR T-cell therapy to patients with relapsed/refractory MCL that has also led to FDA approval and the BRUIN study of the very promising BTK inhibitor pirtobrutinib, and he has launched numerous investigator-initiated trials. Dr Wang's translational laboratory research studies have made far-reaching contributions to the lymphoma field. He has focused on identifying genetic and molecular signatures associated with MCL diagnosis and progression. Additionally, he has characterized cellular and molecular heterogeneity within and across patients and has delineated the dynamic evolution of both tumor and immune cell compartments in ibrutinib-sensitive and -resistant patients.

To promote the continued research and treatment of MCL, Dr Wang established the Mantle Cell Lymphoma Program of Excellence at MD Anderson Cancer Center, which is the world’s only center dedicated to the research and treatment of MCL and has become the largest referral center in the world. In addition, Dr Wang is the founding and current co–principal investigator of the MD Anderson Cancer Center B-Cell Lymphoma Moon Shot Program, with the immediate goal of using clinical, translational, and basic science approaches to double the cure rate of their patients with B-cell lymphoma within the next 5 to 10 years. They are gathering information to fight lymphoma by detecting expression changes, gene mutations, and epigenetic modifications on a genome-wide scale and by using bioinformatics to predict responses to targeted therapy and immunotherapy.