Dr Wang was awarded his PhD in physical chemistry from the University of Science and Technology of China in 2008. He then moved to Australia, and undertook postdoctoral research at the University of Adelaide, where he had been exploring the use of negative ion electrospray mass spectrometry in conjunction of theoretical chemistry (both quantum mechanics and molecular dynamics) to study the ion chemistry of peptides and small organic molecules in gas phase.
Dr Wang joined UniSC in 2012 to continue his research in the areas of peptide chemistry, mass spectrometry and functional proteomics. One of his ongoing interests is to identify and characterise aqueous pheromones and host-defence bioactive peptides from different model animals. He has been working on model fish, Tilapia, and the project aims to discover the peptides responsible for primordial germ cell migration. He has contributed to uncovering possible biofunctional peptide hormones in land snails using a peptidomics approach and designing peptides-based inhibitors of these pheromones/receptors. Dr Wang has made a significant dent in establishing the proteome of marine sponge, Amphimedon queenslandica, and has identified several peptides showing significant biological activities.
Dr Wang has been seeking to uncover potential alarm peptide kairomones of the giant triton snail, which is the major predator of crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS); the outcome of this project could unveil the chemical communication between COTS and the triton, to help develop controlling method for COTS in Great Barrier Reef. Under the umbrella of the genome project of Biomphalaria glabrata (the major intermediate host of parasite Schistosoma mansoni), Dr Wang has contributed to deciphering the chemical communication between the parasites and host snail, that the parasites are attracted to certain components of snail mucus, and am seeking to reveal the structures of these molecules using peptidomic techniques. He has also been using proteomic methods to help elucidate key peptide/protein pheromones in animals with aquaculture significance.
Research grants
| Project name | Funding body |
|---|---|
| Feasibility of a breeding program for the giant triton sea snail (Charonia tritonis) | Australian Institute of Marine Sciences - Other Funding Opportunities |
| Decoding the molecular components of aquatic parasite-host interactions | Australian Research Council - Discovery |
| Agilent Research Collaboration | Agilent Technologies Australia Pty Ltd |
| The Giant Triton and its Potential for Mitigating Crown-of-Thorns Starfish Outbreaks: Development of Aquaculture Methodologies to Produce Giant Tritons for Potential Re-stocking | Reef 2050 |
| Deep Protein Sequencing, Structure and Quantification Mass Spectrometry Facility | Australian Research Council |
| Understanding stress and its impact on pearl quality in the silver-lip pearl oyster, Pinctada maxima, using transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomic tools | Fisheries Research and Development Corporation |
Research areas
- Functional proteomics
- Peptide chemistry
- Biodiscovery
- Natural bioactive peptides
- Computational chemistry
Teaching areas
- Chemistry
- Physical chemistry
- Biological chemistry
- Bioinformatics
Dr Tianfang Wang's area of expertise includes proteomics, ion chemistry, mass spectrometry and theoretical chemistry.