Joseph Wang - Fields of Research

Fields of Research

Joseph Wang's earlier research focused on electrochemical biosensors and detectors for clinical diagnostics and environmental monitoring, with particular emphasis on blood glucose monitoring for diabetes management. Wang's current research interests include the development of nanomotors and nanomachines, enzyme logic gate and nanomaterials-based sensors, electrochemical biosensors, bioelectronics, microfluidic (“Lab-on-a-Chip”) devices, and remote sensors for environmental and security monitoring. His contributions in these directions have been of major impact in the development of electrochemical sensing techniques and man-made nanomachines. He was ranked the ‘Most Cited Researcher in Engineering’ during 1997 - 2007, as well as the ‘Most Cited Chemist’ in ISI’s list of ‘Most Cited Researchers in Chemistry’ for the same period. Joseph Wang has authored over 900 research papers (H-Index = 99), 11 books, 12 patents, and 35 chapters. Over 25 Ph.D. candidates and 150 post-doctoral fellows have collaborated with Wang.

Wang led a team that successfully merged efforts in the fields of biosensors, bioelectronics and nanotechnology to fashion nanocrystals that can act as amplifying tags for DNA or protein biosensors. This creates enormous potential for applications for early disease diagnosis. Wang's work in the field of nanomachines, involving novel motor designs and applications, has led to the world fastest nanomotor, to a novel motion-based DNA biosensing, and nanomachine-enabled isolation of biological targets, e.g.cancer-cell isolation and to advanced motion control in the nanoscale. He has also pioneered the use of body-worn printed flexible electrochemical sensors (including textile and tattoo biosensors), bismuth electrodes for sensing toxic metals and remote submersible devices for continuous environmental monitoring.