Meet our editorial board member: Dr. Kai Wang

Correspondence: Wang K. . Frontage Laboratories, Inc., 700 Pennsylvania Drive, Exton, PA 19335, USA. Phone: +1 484 276 3485.

Citation:
Wang K. Meet our Editorial Board Member: Dr. Kai Wang. J Appl Bioanal 5(1), 7-8 (2019).

Dr. Kai Wang was born on September 11th, 1985 in Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province (China). From 1998 to 2004, he studied the Taiyuan Foreign Language School (TFLS). In 2004; he ranked 24th out of more than 300,000 students in National College Entrance Examination (NCEE) of Shanxi Province in China. He later attended Nanjing University where he earned his Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry in 2008. In the same year, Dr. Wang joined the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Dr. Wang’s graduate research was conducted under the guidance of Professor Jeehiun Katherine Lee and focused on the characterization of thermochemical properties, such as gas phase acidities, proton affinities, tautomerism for two different types of chemical species (1,2,3-triazoles and damaged nucleobases), as well as probing the mechanism of catalytic reactivity using mass spectrometry and computational methods. While pursuing his doctorate degree at Rutgers, Dr. Wang was involved in a number of projects including kinetic and thermodynamic studies on N-heterocyclic carbenes, catalyzed reactions (benzoin condensation, Stetter reaction) using mass spectrometry (MS) and tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) by using mass spectrometer, isolated and explored the fragmentation patterns of reaction intermediates using kinetic monitoring, collision-induced dissociation experiments, analysis of resulting data in order to elucidate properties, structure or mechanism of the reactions; and lastly; conducted the gas phase studies of 1,2,3-triazoles (gas phase acidities, proton affinities, tautomerism and roles as ligands) using Cooks kinetics method on Thermo LCQ Spectrometer and bracketing method on Fourier-transform Mass Spectrometry (FTMS).

Aside from academic research, Dr. Wang was also recognized for his gift of teaching. He was awarded the Rieman Award in 2013 for standing out as one of the best teaching assistants in the Chemistry and Chemical Biology department. Dr. Kai Wang was born on September 11th, 1985 in Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province (China). From 1998 to 2004, he studied the Taiyuan Foreign Language School (TFLS). In 2004; he ranked 24th out of more than 300,000 students in National College Entrance Examination (NCEE) of Shanxi Province in China. He later attended Nanjing University where he earned his Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry in 2008. In the same year, Dr. Wang joined the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Dr. Wang’s graduate research was conducted under the guidance of Professor Jeehiun Katherine Lee and focused on the characterization of thermochemical properties, such as gas phase acidities, proton affinities, tautomerism for two different types of chemical species (1,2,3-triazoles and damaged nucleobases), as well as probing the mechanism of catalytic reactivity using mass spectrometry and computational methods. While pursuing his doctorate degree at Rutgers, Dr. Wang was involved in a number of projects including kinetic and thermodynamic studies on N-heterocyclic carbenes, catalyzed reactions (benzoin condensation, Stetter reaction) using mass spectrometry (MS) and tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) by using mass spectrometer, isolated and explored the fragmentation patterns of reaction intermediates using kinetic monitoring, collision-induced dissociation experiments, analysis of resulting data in order to elucidate properties, structure or mechanism of the reactions; and lastly; conducted the gas phase studies of 1,2,3-triazoles (gas phase acidities, proton affinities, tautomerism and roles as ligands) using Cooks kinetics method on Thermo LCQ Spectrometer and bracketing method on Fourier-transform Mass Spectrometry (FTMS). Aside from academic research, Dr. Wang was also recognized for his gift of teaching. He was awarded the Rieman Award in 2013 for standing out as one of the best teaching assistants in the Chemistry and Chemical Biology department. Upon earning his Ph.D. from Rutgers University in April 2014, Kai found employment as a Senior Scientist at Frontage Laboratories, a leading global contract research organization (CRO).

As a Senior Scientist, Dr. Wang was responsible for method development, validation, and production sample analysis for various preclinical and clinical studies under Good Laboratories Guidance (GLP) regulations. He was promoted in October 2015 to Group Leader because of his outstanding performance, work quality, and dedication. As Group Leader of his research group, he served as principal investigator/responsible (PI/RS) scientist for bioanalysis phase for over 100 preclinical and clinical studies. Then between March 2018 and January 2019, Dr. Wang was promoted to Lab Manager and subsequently to Associate Director, where he has a more direct role in the management of the laboratory functions. Dr. Wang’s research focus is in the area of bioanalytical method development and validation including, quantitation of small-molecule drugs and metabolites, as well as large molecule drugs and biomarkers such as oligonucleotides, proteins, peptides, and glycosaminoglycans. Dr. Wang is currently taking the lead on small-molecular biomarker bioanalysis as well as small-molecular bioanalysis through Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) at Frontage. Dr. Wang also has extensive experience working on the bioanalysis of liposomal drug products. In March 2018, Dr. Wang presented “Bioanalysis of Liposomal Drug by LC-MS/MS” through a webinar organized by the Bioanalysis Zone. The webinar drew significant interest across the pharmaceutical industry where he was then invited to United Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) to give an on-site seminar presentation to over 80 members. During the past few years, several drug products supported by Dr. Wang’s team were granted approval from US FDA. A lot more drug products achieved significant milestone with involvement of his team. Dr. Wang’s work was highly praised by various sponsor as well as regulation agency for providing services with best scientific support and regulatory compliance to world health authority guidance. Dr. Wang is currently associate editor for two journals and is reviewer for several different journals. 

Selected publications

1. Wang K, Chen M, Wang Q, Shi X, Lee JK. 1,2,3-Triazoles: Gas phase properties. J. Org Chem 78(14), 7249–7258 (2013). [CrossRef]
2. Michelson AZ, Chen M, Wang K, Lee JK. Gas-phase studies of purine 3-methyladenine DNA glycosylase II (AlkA) substrates. J Am Chem Soc 134(23), 9622–9633 (2012). [CrossRef]
3. Zeng H, Wang K, Tian Y, et al. The benzoin condensation: Charge tagging of the catalyst allows for tracking by mass spectrometry Dedicated to Professor Veronica M. Bierbaum. Int J Mass Spectrom 369, 92-97 (2014). [CrossRef]
4. Wang K, Chen M, Weng H, Gao Y, Zhao H, Lin Z. Validation of a Robust and High-Throughput HPLC-MS/MS Method to Determine Amantadine Levels in Human Plasma. J Appl Bioanal 4(2), 51–56 (2018). [CrossRef]
5. Wang K, Li M, Xiao Y, et al. Development and validation of an LC–MS/MS Method for the quantitation of heparan sulfate in human urine. Biomed Chromatogr 32(10), e4294 (2018). [CrossRef]
6. Roosendaal J, Wang K, Rosing H, et al. Development and validation of LC-MS/MS methods for the quantification of the novel anticancer agent guadecitabine and its active metabolite ββ‑decitabine in human plasma, whole blood and urine. J Chromatogr B Anal Technol Biomed Life Sci. In-Press (2019).
7. Zeng H, Wang K, Tian Y, et al. The benzoin condensation: Charge tagging of the catalyst allows for tracking by mass spectrometry. Int J Mass Spectrom 378, 169-174 (2015). [CrossRef]

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