Dr Lin Wang

Lin is a Senior Research Associate at the Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge. He is an elected member of the Global Young Academy, and the founder of Lin’s Consulting Group. He was previously at the Institut Pasteur, and the University of Hong Kong. His research primarily explores evolution and adaptation, immune response and memory, and risk assessment. He has developed a set of inference and predictive methods using Bayesian inference, probabilistic modelling, causal analysis, deep learning and interpretable AI. His research has contributed to the characterisation of genetic and antigenic evolution of highly variable pathogens (e.g. influenza virus), inference and prediction on viral infection and disease risk at both individual and population levels (Science TM 2024), and the identification of the Indian Ocean temperature anomalies as key predictor of dengue epidemics in both hemispheres (Science 2024). In his earlier career, he developed an analytical framework to characterise the role of epidemic dynamics and transportation networks in driving global spread of pandemics (Nature Communications 2018). He led an international collaboration and found that serial interval and generation time distributions can change over time in an emerging epidemic, especially under stringent social distancing measures (Science 2020). He had major contributions to the cost-effectiveness assessment of COVID-19 and RSV vaccines (Nature Medicine 2022, 2025). Recent years, he is developing new frameworks that integrate various biological disciplines including genomics, population genetics, protein biology, serology, and systems immunology to decode the dynamics and mechanisms of pathogen evolution and the human immune response.

He has ongoing collaborations with local, national, and international colleagues on pathogen surveillance and human immune response via his NIAID-based pilot research program. He also collaborates with colleagues in multiple countries on projects in genomic surveillance, serosurveys, vaccine trials, and health economic evaluation of vaccines, antiviral drugs, and population health policies. He serves as an associate editor for BMC Medicine and a guest editor for PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.