Episode
Spatial-Omics and Machine Learning in Muscle Stem Cell Repair (Will Wang)
- Podcast
- Epigenetics Podcast
- Published
- Jan 15, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3341
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Summary
In this episode of the Epigenetics Podcast, we talked with Will Wang from Sanford Burnham Prebys about his work on muscle stem cell repair, regeneration, and aging, exploring spatial-omics and machine learning. We begin our conversation by exploring the traditional concepts of spatial biology and how they have evolved to play a critical role in disease research. Dr. Wang recounts his journey from a young student in a family of academics to becoming a leading figure in regenerative biology, highlighting how his early interests in life sciences, natural problem-solving abilities, and inspirations from mentorship set the stage for his current research trajectory. Throughout the discussion, we uncover key insights on how muscle stem cells transition from a quiescent state to a proliferative state in response to injury and how this dynamic process is governed by the epigenetic landscape and various signalling pathways. Dr. Wang emphasises the impact of external factors—be it microenvironment conditions or metabolic cues—on the fate and function of these stem cells, reflecting on the methodologies used to investigate these processes throughout his career. He shares fascinating findings from his PhD work, where he explored the regulatory role of transcription factors like PAX-7 in muscle stem cell activation, and how subsequent research developed in his postdoc at Stanford further illuminated the relationship between metabolism and histone acetylation. This pivotal work not only demonstrated how metabolic states dictate epigenetic modifications but also offered potential therapeutic insights for muscle degeneration and repair. As we move into more recent projects, Dr. Wang discusses the advances in multiplexed spatial proteomics and the insights garnered from a single-cell sp…