Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology Training Program
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health

Weiping Tang, PhD

Position title: Professor, School of Pharmacy; Professor, Department of Chemistry

Email: weiping.tang@wisc.edu

Phone: 608-890-1846

Address:
7125 Rennebohm Hall
777 Highland Ave.

Lab Website
Tang Lab
Weiping Tang

Research Interests

We are interested in developing novel molecules for treating human diseases and facilitating the study of cell biology. Our research covers many aspects of pharmacology. We are particularly interested in developing novel molecules that can selectively degrade disease-causing proteins, which include a wide range of oncogenic proteins and viral proteins. We develop various cell-based and biochemical assays to evaluate the pharmacological properties of the drug candidates such as potency, selectivity, and stability. We also design assays to study the detailed cellular mechanisms of novel molecules we developed such as how they induce the ubiquitination and degradation of protein targets in cells.

Honors & Awards

  • Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Predoctoral Fellowship (2002)
  • Amgen Predoctoral Fellowship (2003)
  • Howard Hughes Medical Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship (2005-2007)
  • Thieme Synlett/Synthesis Journal Award (2010)
  • Amgen Young Investigator Award (2011)
  • Vilas Faculty Mid-Career Investigator Award (2018)
  • Janis Apinis Professor (2019)

Selected Publications

  • “A Cell-based Target Engagement Assay for the Identification of Cereblon E3 Ubiquitin Ligase Ligands and Their Application in HDAC6 Degraders” Yang, K.;  Zhao, Y.; Nie, X.; Wu, H.; Wang, B.; Almodovar-Rivera, C. M.; Xie, H.; Tang, W. Cell Chem. Biol. 2020, 27, 866.
  • “Two-stage Strategy for Development of Proteolysis Targeting Chimeras (PROTAC) and its Application for Estrogen Receptor Degraders” Roberts, B. L.; Ma, Z.-X.; Gao, A.; Leisten, E. D.; Yin, D.; Xu, W.; and Tang, W. ACS Chem. Biol. 2020, 15, 1487.
  • “Development of Selective Histone Deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) Degraders Recruiting Von Hippel–Lindau (VHL) E3 Ubiquitin Ligase” Yang, K.; Wu, H.; Zhang, Z.; Leisten, E. G.; Nie, X.; Liu, B.; Wen, Z.; Zhang, J.; Cunningham, M. D. and Tang, W. ACS Med. Chem. Lett. 2020, 11, 575.
  • “Development of the first small molecule histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) degraders.” Yang, K.; Song, Y.; Xie, H.; Wu, H.; Wu, Y.-T.; Leisten, E. D.; Tang W. Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 2018, 28, 2493.