CV

A pdf version of my CV is available on the right.

General Information

Full Name Zehua Wang (Zack Wang)
Date of Birth 23rd May 2000
Languages English (Professional Proficiency), Chinese (Native), Cantonese, Japanese

Education

  • 2025-Present
    PhD Candidate in Pharmacology
    The University of Auckland, New Zealand
    • Developing population pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic (Pop-PKPD) models for anti-amyloid antibodies (e.g., lecanemab and donanemab) in Alzheimer's disease
    • Quantifying disease-modifying effects versus symptomatic relief using longitudinal biomarker modeling
    • Identifying key covariates (e.g., body weight, age, ApoE ε4 genotype, blood-brain barrier permeability) for personalized dosing optimization
    • Prospective clinical study on exposure-response relationships in AD cohort (data collection phase)
  • 2025
    Master of Pharmacokinetics
    China Pharmaceutical University, China
    • Thesis: Mechanistic modeling of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and CNS drug transport pathology
    • Developed first-in-class PBPK-PD model for Trastuzumab deruxtecan(T-DXd) and Sacituzumab govitecan(SG) predicting efficacy and interstitial lung disease(ILD) risk
    • Discovered novel mechanisms of blood-brain barrier transporter dysregulation in hepatic encephalopathy
    • Elucidated venlafaxine-induced neuropsychiatric adverse effects via PI3K/AKT/mTOR-COMT-epigenetic axis
    • Led industry-sponsored Phase I NSAID clinical pharmacometrics study using Phoenix WinNonlin and R
  • 2022
    Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Engineering
    Shandong First Medical University, China
    • Synthesis and characterization of metal-organic framework-derived antibacterial carbon materials
    • Performance optimization of gradient graphene sponges for water purification applications

Publications

  • Wang Z, et al. Whole-body PBPK-PD model predicting pharmacokinetics, efficacy and pulmonary toxicity of topoisomerase inhibitor antibody-drug conjugates. European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences (Under Revision) - Awarded Excellent Poster, 14th National Drug Metabolism Conference
  • Zhi H, Wang Z, et al. Chronic liver injury induces cerebral carnitine deficiency through downregulation of blood-brain barrier organic cation transporters OCT1/2 and OCTN2. Drug Metabolism and Disposition. 2025;53(5):100072
  • Zhu X, Wang Z, et al. Physiologically-based pharmacokinetic modeling of neuroprotective agent SPT-07A using in vitro-in vivo extrapolation across species. Pharmaceutics. 2024;16(12):1596
  • Zhi H, et al. Renal OCT2/MATE1 suppression in acute liver injury increases metformin systemic exposure and toxicity risk. Biomedicines. 2023;11(23):3314
  • Qian L, et al. Venlafaxine upregulates cerebral catechol-O-methyltransferase via PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling leading to methyl donor depletion and histone hypomethylation. Research Square Preprint. 2023

Technical Proficiencies

  • Computational Pharmacometrics
    • Pop-PKPD Modeling: Nonlinear mixed-effects modeling (NONMEM, Monolix, R)
    • PBPK-PD Modeling: Cross-species scaling (PK-Sim, Berkeley Madonna, R)
    • Global Sensitivity Analysis: Sobol' method for covariate identification
  • Bioanalytical Techniques
    • HPLC-MS quantification: Tissue distribution studies
    • Biomolecular interaction analysis: SPR, MST, BLI
    • Molecular biology: Western blot, qPCR, confocal microscopy
  • Statistical Computing
    • R: Pharmacometric workflow implementation
    • Python: Machine learning for biomarker discovery
    • SPSS: Clinical data analysis

Honors and Awards

  • 2025
    • Outstanding Graduate, CPU
  • 2024
    • Exploring the World Scholarship for International Research
  • 2022-2025
    • Outstanding League Member (3 consecutive years)
    • Academic Excellence Scholarship, CPU (3 awards)
  • 2022
    • Outstanding Graduate, SDFMU
  • 2019-2022
    • Academic Excellence Scholarship, SDFMU (2 awards)
  • 2019
    • Work-study Exemplary Student

Research Interests

  • Pharmacometrics & Clinical Pharmacology
    • Mechanistic clinical PK and PD modeling
    • Model-informed drug development for regulatory decision making
    • Virtual clinical trial simulation for dose optimization
  • Translational Drug Development
    • Cross-species model scaling from preclinical to clinical
    • Quantitative prediction of target-mediated drug disposition
    • Risk mitigation strategies for drug toxicity
  • Neuropharmacology & Blood-Brain Barrier
    • Transporter-mediated CNS drug delivery
    • Peripheral organ pathology effects on brain pharmacokinetics
    • Disease-modifying therapy development for neurodegeneration

Professional Development

  • 2023-2024
    • Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Computing
    • Emerging Biotechnology and Global Governance
    • Big Data Applications in Public Health
  • 2024
    • Advanced Probability and Statistical Theory
    • Data Science for Business Analytics