Rate My Professor Dan Ohtan Wang

Dan Ohtan Wang is Professor of Biology in the Division of Science at New York University Abu Dhabi and Global Network Professor of Biology in the Faculty of Arts and Science at New York University. As a molecular and cellular neuroscientist, she studies how gene expression in neurons connects to environmental and experiential inputs via versatile RNA modifications that modulate gene expression in space and time, enabling behavioral adaptation. Leading the RNA-MIND Lab (RNA Modifications, Intellect, and NeuroDegeneration), her research centers on neuroepitranscriptomics, encompassing synaptic organization, RNA biology, post-transcriptional regulation, RNA trafficking, and dynamic epitranscriptomic regulation, or RNA epigenetics. She pioneered RNA live-imaging techniques using hybridization-sensitive fluorescent probes, achieving ex vivo RNA imaging in living brain tissues, with initial findings linking these processes to synaptic organization and neuropsychiatric diseases.

Wang received a BA in Bioengineering from Tokyo Institute of Technology, a PhD in Neurosciences from the University of Southern California in 2004 in the laboratory of Dr. Michael W. Quick in the Department of Biological Sciences, and postdoctoral training at the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences in 2010. She launched her independent research program as Assistant Professor and Kyoto Fellow at Kyoto University’s Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS) in 2012. Subsequently, she served as Team Leader of the Laboratory for Neuroepitranscriptomics at the RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research. Joining NYU Abu Dhabi in 2022, she continues to advance understanding of RNA-mediated mechanisms in neuronal function. Key publications include the first draft of synaptically localized messenger RNAs with N6-methyladenosine modifications (Nature Neuroscience, 2018); m6A RNA methylation-mediated control of global APC expression required for local translation of β-actin and axon development (Cell Reports, 2025), implicating disruptions in autism and schizophrenia; and contributions to Science (2009) and PNAS (2012) on mRNA localization in synapses. Her work has garnered over 2,700 citations, influencing studies on synaptic plasticity and brain disorders. She has organized events such as the Molecular and Cellular Cognition Society meeting at NYUAD in 2025 and received grants including from the Hirose International Scholarship Foundation.