Speakers

Taia Wang is an Associate Professor of Medicine and a faculty member at the Institute for Immunity, Transplantation, and Infection at Stanford University. Her laboratory focuses on defining new mechanisms in antibody and effector cell biology to enhance vaccine responses and improve disease outcomes. She completed the Medical Scientist Training Program at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, earning an M.D. and a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences for her research with Dr. Peter Palese, which identified structural determinants of broad influenza virus immunity. Her postdoctoral work with Dr. Jeffrey Ravetch revealed that human IgG glycosylation is highly variable and regulated by vaccination and viral infections. She demonstrated that CD23 is a receptor for sialylated IgG, influencing B cell responses after influenza vaccination. Additionally, she discovered that severe dengue disease correlates with elevated afucosylated anti-dengue IgG, which may contribute to disease pathology. Using in vivo models, she showed that IgG glycosylation affects vaccine response quality and infectious disease severity. Dr. Wang is the recipient of several awards, including the Searle Scholar’s Award and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund PATH Award.