Timothy Wang

Timothy Wang made the landmark discovery that vagal nerve innervation promotes gastric cancer through acetylcholine-mediated Wnt signaling in gastric stem cells, and that surgical or pharmacological denervation with botulinum toxin inhibits tumor progression. His work established the principle that peripheral nerves are not passive bystanders but active drivers of tumorigenesis in the gastrointestinal tract. He demonstrated that vagotomy reduces gastric cancer incidence in mouse models and that the effect is mediated through muscarinic receptor signaling. His research provided the first evidence for denervation as a cancer therapeutic strategy.