Epidemiologist and human microbiome scientist Wang Leyao, a scholar for the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), has returned to China amid drastic research funding cuts initiated by the White House.
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Wang joined the Shenzhen Medical Academy of Research and Translation (Smart) as a senior research fellow at the Institute of Human Immunology last month, according to an announcement on Smart’s official social media account on Monday.
The academy stated that Wang “has long been dedicated to the study of the human microbiome” and has made significant contributions to understanding the regulatory role of microbes on immune responses and the impact of climate change on the microbiome.
Before joining Smart, she was an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) and a member of the 2024-2025 NIH climate and health scholars cohort.
Wang is part of a recent wave of senior researchers who left the US to join Smart this summer, joining award-winning HIV scientist Shan Liang – who now heads the human immunology institute – and former NIH senior investigator Lu Wei.
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The US medical research agency has been embroiled in controversy since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, which has left thousands of researchers in limbo due to funding cuts and policy shifts.
