Qixin Wang

I have conducted research with different focuses: (1) Molecular and cellular mechanism focused on pathway regulation and immune responses for chronic lung injury and inflammation (COPD and fibrosis) and infectious respiratory disease (Flu, Pneumonia, COVID and T.B.) (2). Antibody and RNA profiling and discovery for infectious disease prevention and vaccine development, such as flu, COVID-19, and pneumonia, via machine-learning-based analysis (R). (3). Developing and applying 3D engineered tissue as novel biological models for toxicity study, anti-fibrotic drug development, and fibrotic disease modeling. My career will focus on developing noninvasive treatments modeling for inflammatory diseases and airborne-based infections.

• Designed in vitro and in vivo experiment for drug and biomarker candidate screening in various respiratory disease/injury models, with basic molecular, cellular and disease biology knowledge.
• Achieved antibody discovering and characterization, and vaccine development by completing system serology and system biology under AI/ML model with accuracy and efficiency.
• Collaborated with team members from Pfizer Inc. in the evaluation of vaccine efficacy of pneumococcal vaccine and determine the vaccine recommendations (Time and Strategies)
• Discover arthritics biomarkers from long-COVID19 patient by introducing system-biology platform with help of AI/ML modeling.
• Developed new ex vitro model for antibody discovery with shorter measurement period in a low-biosafety level and cell-free system compared to current methods.

• Wang, Q., Nag, D., Larsen, S., Baldwin, S., Coler, R., McNamara, RP., Antibodies as key mediators of protection against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Frontiers in Immunology,15,1430955.
• Tong X., Wang, Q., Chicz, TM., Blanc, R., Park, L., Barouch, D., McNamara, RP., Compartment-Specific Antibody Correlates of Protection to SARS-CoV-2 Omicron in Macaques. iScience: 110174.
• Wang, Q., Blanc, R., Levine, K., Malca, H., Grant, L., Miller, A., Jelena V., Gessner, B., and Mcnamara, R., Conjugated pneumococcal vaccination yields broadly functional, mucosal-directed responses in aged adults (In preparation to Science Translation Medicine).
• Wang, Q., Lucas, J.H., Pang, C., Zhao, R. and Rahman, I., Tobacco and menthol flavored nicotine-free electronic cigarettes induced inflammation and dysregulated repair in lung fibroblast and epithelium. Respiratory Research 25, no. 1 (2024): 1-11
• Wang Q, Goracci C, Sundar IK, Rahman I. Environmental tobacco smoke exposure exaggerates bleomycin-induced collagen overexpression during pulmonary fibrogenesis. Journal of Inflammation, 21(1), pp.1-16.
• Lucas JH, Wang Q, Pang C, Rahman I, (2024) Developmental perfluorooctane sulfonic acid exposure exacerbates house dust mite induced allergic responses in adult mice. Science of The Total Environment, 173768.
• Lucas JH., Wang, Q., Atrash, J.M., Pang, C., and Rahman, I. Developmental PFOS Exposure has Sex-Dependent Effects on Lung Inflammation and Barrier Integrity in Juvenile Mice. Toxicological Sciences, 2024, kfae073, https://doi.org/10.1093/toxsci/kfae073
• El Hellani A, Adeniji A, Erythropel HC, Wang Q, Lamb T, Mikheev VB, Rahman I, Stepanov I, Strongin RM, Wagener TL, Brinkman MC. Comparison of emissions across tobacco products: A slippery slope in tobacco control. Tobacco Induced Diseases. 2024 Mar 30;22(March):1-3. (white paper working with center for tobacco products (CTP) from FDA, and NIH).
• Chandy M, Hill T 3rd, Jimenez-Tellez N, Wu JC, Sarles SE, Hensel E, Wang Q, Rahman I, Conklin DJ. Addressing Cardiovascular Toxicity Risk of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems in the Twenty-First Century: "What Are the Tools Needed for the Job?" and "Do We Have Them?". Cardiovasc. Toxicol. 2024 Mar 31:1-37. (white paper working with center for tobacco products (CTP) from FDA, and NIH).
• Kassem N. O.F. Strongin R.M., Stroup A.M., Brinkman M.C., El-Hellani A, Erythropel H C., Etemadi A., Exil V, Goniewicz M.L., Kassem N.O., Klupinski T.P., Liles S, Muthumalage T, Noël A, Peyton D.H., Wang Q, Rahman I, Valerio L.G.,Jr. Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) Food Ingredients in E-cigarettes: A Toxicological Review. Nicotine and Tobacco Research (2024): ntae123. (white paper working with center for tobacco products (CTP) from FDA, and NIH).
• Brinkman M.C., El-Hellani A, Erythropel H C., Exil V, Goniewicz M.L., Hansen E.G., Klupinski T.P., Li D., Luo W., Peyton D.H., Rahman I, Rezk-Hanna M., Strongin R.M., Stroup A.M., Wang Q.. Toxicity of waterpipe tobacco smoking: the role of flavors, sweeteners, humectants, and charcoal. Toxicological Sciences, 2024:, kfae095, https://doi.org/10.1093/toxsci/kfae095 (white paper working with center for tobacco products (CTP) from FDA, and NIH).
• Wang Q, Sundar IK, Lucas JH, Park JG, Nogales A, Martinez-Sobrido L, Rahman I. Circadian clock molecule REV-ERBα regulates lung fibrotic progression through collagen stabilization. Nat Commun. 2023 Mar 9;14(1):1295.
• Lucas JH, Wang Q, Rahman I. Perfluorooctane Sulfonic Acid Disrupts Protective Tight Junction Proteins via Protein Kinase D in Airway Epithelial Cells. Toxicol Sci. 2022;190(2):215-226. doi:10.1093/toxsci/kfac096
• Giri A, Wang Q, Rahman I, Sundar IK. Circadian molecular clock disruption in chronic pulmonary diseases. Trends in Molecular Medicine. 2022 Jun 1;28(6):513-27. (Invited, cover highlighted).
• Wang Q, Unwalla H, Rahman I. Dysregulation of mitochondrial complexes and dynamics by chronic cigarette smoke exposure Utilizing MitoQC reporter mice. Mitochondrion. 2022;63:43-50. doi:10.1016/j.mito.2022.01.003
• Wang Q., Sundar, I. K., Lucas, J. H., Muthumalage, T., & Rahman, I. (2021). Molecular clock REV-ERBα regulates cigarette smoking-induced lung inflammation and epithelial-mesenchymal transition. JCI insight, 6(12), e145200. https://doi.org/10.1172/jci.insight.145200
• Wang Q., Ji X.; Rahman, I., Dysregulated Metabolites Serve as Novel Biomarkers for Metabolic Diseases Caused by E-Cigarette Vaping and Cigarette Smoking. Metabolites 2021, 11 (6), 345.
• Lucas JH, Wang Q, Muthumalage T, Rahman I. Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNTs) Cause Cellular Senescence in TGF-β Stimulated Lung Epithelial Cells. Toxics. 2021; 9(6):144.
• Sharma S, Wang Q, Muthumalage T, Rahman I. Epithelial Ablation of Miro1/Rhot1 GTPase Augments Lung Inflammation by Cigarette Smoke. Pathophysiology. 2021; 28(4):501-512.
• Wang Q.; Sundar, I. K.; Li, D.; Lucas, J. H.; Muthumalage, T.; McDonough, S. R.; Rahman, I., E-cigarette-induced pulmonary inflammation and dysregulated repair are mediated by nAChR α7 receptor: role of nAChR α7 in SARS-CoV-2 Covid-19 ACE2 receptor regulation. Respiratory research 2020, 21 (1), 1-17.
• Lucas JH, Wang Q, Muthumalage T, and Rahman I. Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNTs) Cause Cellular Senescence in TGF-β Stimulated Lung Epithelial Cells. Toxics 9: 144, 2021.
• Wang Q.; Sundar, I. K.; Blum, J. L.; Ratner, J. R.; Lucas, J. H.; Chuang, T.-D.; Wang, Y.; Liu, J.; Rehan, V. K.; Zeilfokk, J. T., Prenatal exposure to electronic-cigarette aerosols leads to sex-dependent pulmonary extracellular-matrix remodeling and myogenesis in offspring mice. American journal of respiratory cell and molecular biology 2020, 63 (6), 794-805. (Highlighted in current issue)
• Muthumalage, T.; Lucas, J. H.; Wang, Q.; Lamb, T.; McGraw, M. D.; Rahman, I., Pulmonary Toxicity and Inflammatory Response of Vape Cartridges Containing Medium-Chain Triglycerides Oil and Vitamin E Acetate: Implications in the Pathogenesis of EVALI. Toxics 2020, 8 (3), 46.
• Manevski, M.; Muthumalage, T.; Devadoss, D.; Sundar, I. K.; Wang, Q.; Singh, K. P.; Unwalla, H. J.; Chand, H. S.; Rahman, I., Cellular stress responses and dysfunctional Mitochondrial–cellular senescence, and therapeutics in chronic respiratory diseases. Redox Biology 2020, 33, 101443.
• Lucas, J. H.; Muthumalage, T.; Wang, Q.; Friedman, M. R.; Friedman, A. E.; Rahman, I., E-Liquid containing a mixture of coconut, vanilla, and cookie flavors causes cellular senescence and dysregulated repair in pulmonary fibroblasts: implications on premature aging. Frontiers in Physiology 2020, 11.
• Khan, N. A.; Lawyer, G.; McDonough, S.; Wang, Q.; Kassem, N. O.; Kas-Petrus, F.; Ye, D.; Singh, K. P.; Kassem, N. O.; Rahman, I., Systemic biomarkers of inflammation, oxidative stress and tissue injury and repair among waterpipe, cigarette and dual tobacco smokers. Tobacco control 2020, 29 (Suppl 2), s102-s109.
• Wang Q.; Khan, N. A.; Muthumalage, T.; Lawyer, G. R.; McDonough, S. R.; Chuang, T. D.; Gong, M.; Sundar, I. K.; Rehan, V. K.; Rahman, I., Dysregulated repair and inflammatory responses by e-cigarette-derived inhaled nicotine and humectant propylene glycol in a sex-dependent manner in mouse lung. FASEB bioAdvances 2019, 1 (10), 609-623.
• Lawyer, G. R.; Jackson, M.; Prinz, M.; Lamb, T.; Wang, Q.; Muthumalage, T.; Rahman, I., Classification of flavors in cigarillos and little cigars and their variable cellular and acellular oxidative and cytotoxic responses. PLoS one 2019, 14 (12), e0226066.
• Khan, N. A., Yogeswaran, S., Wang, Q. Muthumalage, T.; Sundar, I. K.; Rahman, I., Waterpipe smoke and e-cigarette vapor differentially affect circadian molecular clock gene expression in mouse lungs. PLoS one 2019, 14 (2), e0211645. (Equal contribution)
• Wang, Q.; Masud, A.; Aich, N.; Wu, Y., In vitro pulmonary toxicity of reduced graphene oxide-nano zero valent iron nanohybrids and comparison with parent nanomaterial attributes. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering 2018, 6 (10), 12797-12806.
• Chen, Z., Wang, Q., Asmani, M.; Li, Y.; Liu, C.; Li, C.; Lippmann, J. M.; Wu, Y.; Zhao, R., Lung microtissue array to screen the fibrogenic potential of carbon nanotubes. Scientific reports 2016, 6 (1), 1-11.
• Wang, Q; Wu, Y. MicroRNA Delivery by Lipoplexes in Lung Cancer Therapy. The World Scientific Encyclopedia of Nanomedicine and Bioengineering, Volume 3: Nanotechnology in Gene Delivery. Donglu Shi (Ed.), 2016. ISBN: 978-981-4667-65-4, World Scientific Publishers.
• Luo H, Zhao H, Chang Y, Wang Q, Yu H, and Shen Z. Oriented Immobilization and Characterization of a Poly-Lysine-Tagged Cephalosporin C Acylase on Glyoxyl Agarose Support. Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology 175: 2114-2123, 2015.
• Wang, Q., Blanc, R., Levine, K., Malca, H., Grant, L., Miller, A., Gessner, B., and Mcnamara, R., Conjugated pneumococcal vaccination yields broadly functional, mucosal-directed responses in aged adults. Oral Presentation at 2024 Vaccine Summit at Boston (June 2024)
• Wang, Q., Goracci, C., Sundar, I.K. and Rahman, I., 2023. Cigarette Smoke Exacerbates Bleomycin-induced Lung Injury and Collagen Deposition Via Lysyl Oxidase-dependent Mechanism in Mice. In B107. COPD: FROM OMICS TO TREATMENT (pp. A4410-A4410). American Thoracic Society.
• Kaur, G., Tjitropranoto, A., Wang, Q., Shaikh, S.B. and Rahman, I., 2023. Lung Cellular Senescence Atlas by Single Cell RNA Sequencing and Other Biomarkers in Patients With COPD. In A107. AGING AND LUNG DISEASES COMING TO AGE (pp. A2661-A2661). American Thoracic Society.
• Wang, Q., Park, J., Sundar, I. K., Lucas, J., Martinez-Sobrido, L., & Rahman, I. (2022). Molecular Clock Rev-erba Regulates Influenza A Virus-Induced Lung Fibrotic Progression via Collagen Stabilization. In B107. MOLECULAR MECHANISMS OF SARS-CoV-2, INFLUENZA, AND OTHER LUNG INFECTIONS (pp. A3607-A3607). American Thoracic Society. (Abstract Scholarship)
• Q Wang, IK Sundar, I Rahman. Molecular Circadian Component REV-ERBα Regulates Pulmonary Inflammation Induced by Environmental Tobacco Smoke and Cigarette Smoke. TP109. TP109 COPD AND E-CIGARETTES: PRE-CLINICAL MODELS AND MECHANISMS, ATS annual meeting (2021)
• J.H. Lucas, Q. Wang, and I. Rahman. Alterations in Lung Epithelial Barrier Integrity May Be Associated with Downregulation of AKT Signaling and Tight Junction Proteins by Perfluorooctane Sulfonic Acid (PFOS). SOT annual meeting (2021)
• Q. Wang, JX Ji, and I. Rahman. Dysregulated Metabolites by Electronic Cigarette and Cigarette Smoke Serve as Novel Biomarker for Metabolic Diseases Caused by Vaping and Smoking. SOT annual meeting (2021)
• S. Sharma, I. Sundar, R. K, Maremanda, Q. Wang, G. Kaur, T. Muthumalage, I. Rahman. Miro1 Regulates Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Inflammation by Cigarette Smoke and Environmental Tobacco Exposure in Lung Epithelium. SOT annual meeting (2021)
• Q Wang, JG Park, IK Sundar, I Rahman. Molecular Circadian Component REV-ERBα Regulates Lung Inflammation Induced by Influenza Virus and Cigarette Smoke, B29. INFECTION AND IMMUNE INTERPLAY IN LUNG INJURY, ATS annual meeting (2020)
• Q Wang, J Lucas, IK Sundar, I Rahman. Electronic-Cigarette Induces Dysregulated Repair Response and Extracellular Matrix Remodeling in Mouse Lung Via α7 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor. D17. VAPING, CIGARETTES, AND LUNG INJURY, A6240-A6240, ATS annual meeting (2020)
• Q Wang, IK Sundar, JL Blum, JR Ratner, JH Lucas, T-D Chuang, Y Wang, J Liu, VK Rehan, JT Zeilfokk, I Rahman. Prenatal E-cig Aerosol Exposure Leads to Extracellular Matrix Remodeling and Dysregulated Myogenesis in Offspring Mice with Sex-Dependent Manner. C25. EARLY LIFE EXPOSURES AS DETERMINANTS OF RESPIRATORY DISEASE, ATS annual meeting (2020)
• N. Aich, Q. Wang, M. Arvid, N. Aich, Y. Wu. Interactions and Toxicity of Next Generation Graphene-Metal Nanohybrids at the Pulmonary Interfaces: Influence of Emerging Physicochemical Properties. Oral Presentation in 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AiChE) Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
• Q. Wang, M. Arvid, N. Aich, Y. Wu. Effect of Metal Nanoparticle Conjugation on the Cytotoxicity of Graphene Oxides. Oral Presentation in 2017 SNO conference, Washington, DC, USA
• Q. Wang, C. Liu and Y. Wu. MicroRNAs as Biomarkers for Cytotoxicity Evaluation of Multi-Wall Carbon Nanotube. Oral Presentation in 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AiChE) Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
• Q. Wang, Z. Chen, C. Liu, R. Zhao and Y. Wu. A Microtissue Array Device to Evaluate Effects of Multiwall Carbon Nanotubes on Lung Tissue Mechanics and Pulmonary Toxicity. Oral Presentation in 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AiChE) Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
• C. Liu, S. Shoemaker, T. Shaurova, Q. Wang, M. Petkovich, P. Hershberger, Y. Wu. Tumor-targeted Nanoparticles Deliver a Vitamin D-based Drug Payload for Treatment of EGFR Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor-resistant Lung Cancer. Oral Presentation in 2016 Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual Meeting, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
• C. Liu, Q. Wang, J. Spernyak, Y. Wu. MicroRNA Delivery by Multifunctional Lipoplexes in Lung Cancer Therapy and Imaging. Poster Presentation in Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual Meeting, Tampa, FL, USA.

• Guest editor in Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, Topics of Applications of Omics Technologies in Lung Research
• Guest editor in Frontiers in Toxicology, Topics of Model Organisms in Clinical Toxicology

• University at Buffalo, Department of Biomedical Engineering.
• Principles of Biomedical Engineering. (University at Buffalo, 2014 Fall, Teaching assistant)
• Biomedical Chemical Principles 2 (University at Buffalo, 2017 Fall Teaching assistant)
• Biomaterials and Mechanics (University at Buffalo, 2015 Fall Teaching Assistant)

• Name: Developing engineered tissue platform for screening the pro-fibrotic effects of flavored e-cigarettes (P.I.)
• Funding: NIH/FDA Center for Research on Flavored Tobacco (CRoFT), Mentored Pilot Project
• Duration: 09/01/2020-08/31/2021
• Key personnel involved in research grants:
• Molecular clock dysfunction in lung cellular senescence by environmental tobacco smoke
• Funding: NIEHS (R01), PI: Irfan Rahman.
• Duration: 05/01/2019-01/31/2024
• Inflammatory and Dysregulated Repair Responses to Inhaled Nicotine
• Funding: NHLBI (R01), PI: Irfan Rahman.
• Duration: 01/16/2017-11/31/2021
• Molecular Clock REV-ERBα in COPD and its exacerbations
• Duration: 01/04/2017-2/28/2021
• Mechanism of Mitochondrial Dysfunction in COPD
• Duration: 07/01/2017-6/30/2021
• Research Project 1: In vitro and in vivo assessment of flavorant toxicity in WNY Center for Research on Flavored Tobacco Products (CRoFT)
• Funding: NCI (U54), P.I.: Irfan Rahman.
• Duration: 09/14/2018-08/31/2023

• Harvard School of Public Health