Dr. Wang's research interest is to develop imaging methods using mathematics, physics, electronic engineering, and computer science tools, and to help physicians to diagnose disease more accurately and treat patients better. Currently his group is focusing on developing Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) methods for cardiovascular diseases.

Cardiac disease is the No. 1 killer in the US and there is no screening test to assess the risk of heart attack. MRI is a powerful noninvasive imaging modality that can provide adequate resolution and tissue contrast
to depict coronary artery disease and other cardiac anatomy and functions. Cardiac MRI is expected to play an important role in managing heart patients. The technical challenge in Cardiac MRI is that the motion of the heart causes blurring and ghosting in MRI. Dr. Wang's group has pioneered the navigator approach to suppressing motion artifacts. Motion is measured mmediately before image acquisition and data acquisition parameters are modified in real time to compensate for motion effects. Dr. Wang's group is also developing fast acquisition methods for optimal image formation.

MRI is also capable of providing biological information cross many scales from organ down to cells. Magnetic agents using bionanotechnology are being actively developed to label cells for in vivo tracking using MRI. Dr. Wang's group is pioneering a novel approach to quantification of magnetic labels including both metallic deposits associated with diseases such as neurodegenerative diseases and magnetically labeled targeted therapeutics.