Principal Investigator
Email: jowang@uw.edu
Dr. Joanne Wang is a Professor in the Dept. of Pharmaceutics at the School of Pharmacy, University of Washington. She received her BS degree in Biochemistry from Peking University and her PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Wang’s primary research interests have been focused on understanding solute carrier (SLC) proteins that transport nutrients, neurotransmitters, hormones, drugs, and toxins across cell membranes. Her laboratory first cloned, characterized, and generated the knockout mouse model for the plasma membrane monoamine transporter (PMAT, SLC29A4). Using molecular, biochemical, cellular approaches and mechanistic studies in transgenic mouse models, her laboratory has 1) established PMAT as a major uptake-2 monoamine transporter in the human brain as well as a polyspecific organic cation transporter in normal and cancerous human tissues and cells; 2) demonstrated the role of organic cation transporter 3 (OCT3, SLC22A3) in drug accumulation in salivary glands and in placental transport of organic cation drugs and toxins; 3) elucidated the molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in OCT2 (SLC22A2) and MATE1/2-K (SLC47A1/2K)-mediated renal drug elimination and drug-drug interactions; 4) elucidated the molecular and cellular mechanisms of OATP (SLCO)-mediated transport at the blood-CSF barrier; 5) uncovered a novel molecular mechanism underlying obesity and metabolic dysfunctions due to serotonin transporter (SERT, SLC6A4) deletion. Dr. Wang serves as an associate editor for Pharmacological Reviews and is on the editorial advisory boards of Molecular Pharmacology, Drug Metabolism and Disposition, and Biopharmaceutics and Drug Disposition.