Gene-Jack Wang Named Chair of Brookhaven Lab's Medical Department

November 1, 2006

UPTON, NY - Gene-Jack Wang, a physician who specializes in nuclear medicine, has been named Chair of the Medical Department at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, effective October 23.

With an annual budget of over $14 million and a staff of 72 employees, Brookhaven's Medical Department is focused on research related to the brain. Using sophisticated imaging techniques, such as positron emission tomography, researchers study diseases related to the brain's functioning, such as addiction, obesity, Alzheimer's disease and depression. Other research projects are geared toward developing new nuclear medicine treatment and diagnostic agents, producing medical isotopes for clinical use, and understanding and treating cancer and heart disease. In addition, medical researchers study the biological effects of cosmic rays in space at the NASA Space Radiation Facility.

"I am looking forward to expanding the capabilities of the Medical Department by increasing our interaction with industry and forming more partnerships with medical schools and hospitals," Wang said. "We also plan to collaborate with other departments at Brookhaven, such as Biology, Chemistry, Instrumentation, and Physics, as well as the Center for Functional Nanomaterials, to develop new imaging equipment to continue to be at the forefront of research in brain-related diseases."

In addition to managing Brookhaven's Medical Department, Wang will continue his groundbreaking research in addiction and obesity. Recently, Wang and his Brookhaven colleagues have identified brain circuits that motivate the desire to overeat in the obese, and they have found that these are the same circuits that cause addicted individuals to crave drugs. "With funding from the Department of Energy and with access to state-of-the-art imaging tools at Brookhaven Lab, I hope to find out more about what causes obesity, a problem that has become widespread in the U.S.," Wang said.

Gene-Jack Wang received his M.D. from Kaohsiung Medical University, Taiwan, in 1980, and a master's degree in radiation health sciences from The Johns Hopkins University in 1984. He joined Brookhaven's Medical Department in 1990 as an assistant scientist and rose through the ranks to become clinical head of the PET imaging group in 1996 and senior medical scientist in 2005. Since April 2005, he has served as Acting Chair of the Medical Department.

Wang is also an associate professor at Stony Brook University (SBU) as well as the Associate Director of the SBU-General Clinical Research Center at Brookhaven. He is a visiting scientist in the Division of Nuclear Medicine at North Shore University Hospital, attending physician in the Division of Nuclear Medicine at Glen Cove Hospital, and Professor of Psychiatry at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York University.

NOTE TO LOCAL EDITORS: Gene-Jack Wang is a resident of Port Jefferson, NY.

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