New Faculty Profiles
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Alex K. Wong, MD
Tania Wong, PhD
Dr. Alex Wong graduated cum laudein Biological Sciences from Cornell University and received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. As a medical student he was awarded a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Pre-doctoral Fellowship to study angiogenesis and cancer biology at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Wong pursued post-doctoral clinical training in Plastic Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and post-doctoral basic research fellowship training in progenitor cell biology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Prior to starting his first faculty position, Dr. Wong completed additional sub-specialty clinical fellowship training in Reconstructive Microsurgery at NYU Langone Medical Center.
Dr. Wong started his research laboratory in 2010 at the Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California and was most recently at the Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope. His group has had a longstanding interest in studying fundamental aspects of tissue regeneration as it relates to lymphangiogenesis and wound healing. Over the past decade, Dr. Wong's group has received extramural support from numerous agencies including the National Institutes of Health (K08 &R01), Plastic Surgery Foundation, California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and Lymphatic Education & Research Network. Dr. Wong will be joining Rutgers Health New Jersey Medical School as Professor & Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Surgery and Member of the Center for Immunity and Inflammation in April 2024.
Dr. Wong obtained her PhD from the University of Melbourne, Australia. There, she focused on effector proteins that are secreted by gastrointestinal pathogens and how they interfere with host cell signaling pathways involved in inflammation and cell death to establish infection. Following the completion of her PhD in 2016, she joined the laboratory of Professor Alice Prince at Columbia University where she continued to investigate the interaction between the host and bacterial pathogens, particularly those that are multidrug-resistant. She has gained experience with various mouse models of pulmonary and skin infection. A major focus of her research, for which she was awarded a K99/R00 grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), is the host-pathogen metabolic interplay, which shapes the infection outcome. She is interested in understanding how opportunistic pathogens such as Klebsiella pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus subvert the host metabolic response and how this in turn dictates the immune response. In addition, she aims to manipulate the immunometabolic response to promote bacterial clearance via dietary intervention and changes in the microbiota. Dr. Wong joined the Center for Immunity and Inflammation at Rutgers Health New Jersey Medical School as an Assistant Professor and Chancellor Scholar in the Department of Microbiology, Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics in April 2024.
