Xiaotong Wang is the newest SMARTbiomed research fellow

One of the authors of the recently-developed Manc-COJO analysis tool and a recent DPhil graduate under the guidance of SMARTbiomed director Naomi Wray and co-director Peter Visscher at the University of Oxford, Xiaotong Wang is the most recent addition to the ranks of SMARTbiomed research fellows.

“Being part of SMARTbiomed has made a real difference to my work because it strongly emphasizes translation and collaboration. Quantitative genomics sits at the intersection of statistics, biology, and medicine—no single person can realistically cover all of that alone. SMARTbiomed brings together experts across these areas, which makes it an ideal environment for interdisciplinary collaboration,” Xiaotong explains.

Interdisciplinary cooperation is not new to Xiaotong. He describes his experiences and his motivation for ending up working in quantitative genomics as such: “My academic path has been fairly interdisciplinary from the start. I completed my Honours Bachelor of Science at the University of Toronto, where I double majored in Statistics and Immunology. I then went on to earn my Doctor of Medicine at the University of Queensland. During my clinical training - particularly while caring for critically ill patients - I became increasingly aware of the limitations of our current treatments for many complex disorders. That experience had a profound impact on me. It became clear that improving patient outcomes would require a much deeper understanding of the biological mechanisms underlying disease, and increasingly, that means understanding genetics at scale.” And so, genomics, interdisciplinary work, and the SMARTbiomed hub at Oxford University became a natural next destination.

As for what’s next? “My future work focuses on three main areas: developing statistical tools, applying those tools in clinical settings, and strengthening multidisciplinary integration” is his answer – and we think SMARTbiomed is the perfect home for such an ambition and are happy to welcome Xiaotong as the newest research fellow – hopefully with many fruitful interdisciplinary projects to come in the future.