Young Investigator: Lianrong Wang

Supervisor’s supporting comments I fully support Lianrong Wang’s nomination as a Bioanalysis Young Investigator. Over the course of a few years, she has learned a tremendous amount about bioanalytical chemistry and technology, which has greatly broadened her perspective on microbiology and biomedical science in general. She quickly mastered a wide range of both chromatographic and mass spectrometric methods, which she systematically applied to solve a long-standing problem in microbiology: the question of the chemical identity of sulfur incorporated into DNA in bacteria possessing the dnd gene cluster. Her efforts led to the very important discovery of phosphorothioate DNA modifications as natural products, demonstrating the power of applying bioanalysis to biological problems. Lianrong Wang now possesses a valuable interdisciplinary skill set that will allow her to tackle important problems in drug development and biomedical science.