Fan Wang

Fan Wang is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Neurobiology at Duke University since 2021. She is also a Faculty Network Member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences (2008–Present) and an Affiliate of the Duke Regeneration Center (2021–Present). Her research focuses on the neural circuit basis of sensory perception, including active touch sensation, pain processing, and anesthesia-induced unconsciousness. Using genetic, viral, electrophysiological, and in vivo imaging techniques, her lab investigates tactile motor control, pain suppression mechanisms, and consciousness modulation.

• Ph.D., Columbia University (1998)

Research trends in recent publications span neural circuit mapping, AI-driven drug design, and medical imaging innovations. Key areas include anesthesia mechanisms, pain suppression pathways, 3D dental modeling, and GABAergic neuron function in the brain stem. Collaborative work extends to computational toxicology, graph neural networks, and green pesticide design using machine learning.

Scientific recognition includes the AAAS Fellowship (2014) and the Sloan Research Fellowship in Neuroscience (2004). Media coverage highlights breakthroughs such as the discovery of a potent pain-suppression center in the brain (2020) and advancements in cortical parcellation (2022). Her grants include multiple National Institutes of Health awards (1997–2022) and support from the W.M. Keck Foundation (2016–2018).

Labs and teams at Duke, including the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, collaborate on projects spanning neuroanatomy, computational biology, and environmental toxicology. Current work integrates AI tools for cortical parcellation, protein-ligand affinity prediction, and multi-agent reinforcement learning for biomedical applications.