Researcher Spotlight: Yucai Wang, MD

MAYO CLINIC ROCHESTER

Dr. Wang’s interest in cancer research began during his time in medical school at Nanjing University in China. He had lost two close family members to lymphoma and was drawn to pursue a doctoral degree in cancer biology from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. During his postdoctoral research, he had the opportunity to shadow a clinical researcher who was leading a pivotal clinical trial of the Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor ibrutinib for relapsed/refractory mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). “I was fascinated by the disease and excited by the promise of the first-in-class BTK inhibitor, and I became passionate about finding new therapies for MCL,” he says.

To that end, Dr. Wang’s research is focused on the evaluation of two new therapeutic approaches for the treatment of either untreated or relapsed MCL. Within these studies, he also hopes to analyze patterns to better understand how different patients respond and help determine which patients will benefit most from these therapies.

Dr. Wang is inspired by the many lymphoma researchers who have mentored him throughout his career. With the support of the Lymphoma Research Foundation, he hopes to further develop his expertise as a clinical trialist in lymphoma and aspires to one day be among the leading MCL researchers in the field.