Bio

Prof. Wei Tao is the Farokhzad Family Distinguished Chair for Innovation (Endowed Chair), Co-Director of Nano Immune-Imaging Core, Principal Investigator in the Center for Nanomedicine, and Faculty Member in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), Harvard Medical School (HMS). He is also the first Distinguished Chair professor as an assistant professor in the history of his institution. He has been continuously named a Clarivate’s Global Highly Cited Researcher since 2021, and has published over 160 peer-reviewed, high-impact papers in prestigious journals such as Nature Medicine, Nature Nanotechnology, Science Translational Medicine, Nature Biomedical Engineering, Nature Reviews Materials, Nature Reviews Cancer, Nature Reviews Cardiology, Nature Reviews Methods Primers, PNAS, Nature Protocols, Nature Communications, Science Advances, Chemical Reviews, Chemical Society Reviews, Accounts of Chemical Research, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Angewandte Chemie, Advanced Materials, Materials Today, Matter (Cell Press), Med (Cell Press), etc. He has received multiple awards/grants including the American Heart Association (AHA) Transformational Project Award, American Lung Association (ALA) Courtney Cox Cole Lung Cancer Research Award, AHA Collaborative Sciences Award, ALA Cancer Discovery Award, LEO Foundation Research Grant, Novo Nordisk ValidatioNN Award, American Society of Transplantation (AST) Career Transition Grant (Translational Science), Harvard Catalyst - Cores Facility Program, Harvard/Brigham Health Technology Innovator Award, Distinguished Chair Professorship Foundation, Anaesthesia Department Basic Scientist Grant, Khoury Innovation Award, Center for Nanomedicine Research Fund, Nanotechnology Foundation, Stepping Strong Breakthrough Innovator Award, AHA's Second Century Early Faculty Independence Award, U.S. METAvivor Early Career Investigator Award, MIT Technology Review Top Chinese Innovators Under 35 (2020 TR35), World's Top 2% Scientist (Year-List since 2019; Career-List since 2023), Chemical Society Reviews (IF~40) Emerging Investigator Award, Advanced Materials (IF~27) Rising Star, Materials Today (IF~21) Rising Star Award, Angewandte Chemie (IF~16) Most Outstanding Referees Award, Materials Horizons (IF~12) Top 10 Outstanding Reviewers Award, etc. He is an elected Fellow of the International Association of Advanced Materials (FIAAM).

He serves on the scientific committee as either an invited award nominator or an invited grant reviewer for European Research Council, NIH (US), DoD (US), Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation), Swiss National Science Foundation (Switzerland), Dutch Research Council (Netherlands), Israel Science Foundation (Israel), Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Canada), The Xplorer Prize (科学探索奖, China), JDRF (Type 1 Diabetes Grand Challenge, UK), VinFuture Prize (VinFuture Foundation, Vietnam), MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 (TR35), etc. He also serves on numerous editorial boards including as Founding Editor-in-Chief of Biomedical Technology (Elsevier, KeAi's new journal), Deputy Editor of Exploration (Wiley's new journal), Associate Editor of Journal of Nanobiotechnology (IF~11; Springer Nature & BMC) and Aggregate (IF~14; Wiley); Editor of PNAS (IF~9); Guest Editor of eLife, etc.; Senior Editorial Board Member of Materials Today (IF~21, Elsevier), Bioactive Materials (IF~18; Elsevier, KeAi), Nano-Micro Letters (IF~32; Springer Nature), etc.; and Advisory Board Member of Matter (IF~17; Cell Press).

See Prof. Tao's interview (together with Prof. Robert Langer/MIT, Prof. Samir Mitragotri/Harvard, Dr. Nicholas Warne/Pfizer, Dr. Steffen Panzner/BioNTech, etc.) in Nature Medicine (pdf).

List of Research Areas

Biomaterials, RNA Medicine, Drug Delivery, Biomedical Engineering, Nanomedicine.

Grants, Awards & Honors

UNSW RNA Institute Honorary Visiting Professorship

LEO Foundation Research Grant (PI)

NIH P01 (Co-PI)

Elected Fellow of the International Association of Advanced Materials (FIAAM)

Harvard Catalyst - Cores Facility Program (PI)

American Society of Transplantation (AST) Career Transition Grant - Translational Science (PI)

Novo Nordisk ValidatioNN Award (PI)

Distinguished Chair Professorship Foundation (PI)

American Lung Association Lung (ALA) Cancer Discovery Award (PI)

ALA Courtney Cox Cole Lung Cancer Research Award (PI)

American Heart Association (AHA) Transformational Project Award (PI)

AHA's Second Century Early Faculty Independence Award (PI)

BWH Health Technology Innovator Award (PI)

Clarivate’s Global Highly Cited Researcher, Web of Science (Selected continuously since 2021)

Journal of Nanobiotechnology Outstanding Editor Award

Advanced Materials Rising Star

Angewandte Chemie Most Outstanding Referees (Top 10% Reviewers) in 2021, 2022

Materials Today Rising Star Award

World's Top 2% Scientist, published in Mendeley Data from Elsevier (Year-List since 2019; Career-List since 2023)

Chemical Society Reviews Emerging Investigator Award, Royal Society of Chemistry

BWH Nanotechnology Foundation (PI)

Rising Talents Award, Precision Nanomedicine (PRNANO)

Microsoft Academic Top 5 Trending Authors in Nanotechnology (2016-2020), and Top Authors in Nanomedicine

Nanoscale Emerging Investigator Award, Royal Society of Chemistry

MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 (2020 TR35 China)

BWH Khoury Innovation Award (PI)

Harvard/BWH Assistant Professor Department Start-Up Package (PI)

BWH Stepping Strong Breakthrough Innovator Award (Co-PI)

Top 10 Outstanding Reviewers in 2019, Materials Horizons

Featured Investigator at BWH Anaesthesia Department

BWH Center for Nanomedicine Research Fund (PI)

AHA Collaborative Sciences Award (Co-PI)

BWH Anaesthesia Department Basic Science Seed Grant (PI)

US METAvivor Early Career Investigator Award (PI)

Outstanding Reviewer Award, Acta Biomaterialia

Invited Grant Reviewer/Award Nominator (Scientific Committee)

National Institutes of Health (NIH Review Branch – Bioengineering, Biodata, and Biomodeling Technologies), USA

DoD Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (Breast Cancer Research Program), USA

European Research Council

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation), Germany

Swiss National Science Foundation, Switzerland

Dutch Research Council, Netherlands

Israel Science Foundation, Israel

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Canada

The Xplorer Prize (科学探索奖), China

JDRF (Type 1 Diabetes Grand Challenge - Novel Insulins Innovation Incubator Panel), UK

VinFuture Prize, VinFuture Foundation, Vietnam

Fellow of the International Association of Advanced Materials (FIAAM)

IAAM Young Scientist Medal/Scientist Medal

MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 (TR35 China/Asia Pacific)

Editorships

Founding Editor-in-Chief, Biomedical Technology (Elsevier/KeAi’s new journal; 2025 January CiteScore: 11.6)

Deputy Editor /Associate Editor (2021 - 2023), Exploration (Wiley’s new journal; 2025 January CiteScore: 27.1)

Associate Editor, Aggregate (Wiley; IF~14)

Associate Editor, Journal of Nanobiotechnology (Springer Nature/BMC; IF~11)

Editor, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA (PNAS; IF~9)

Senior Editorial/Advisory Board Member:

Matter (Cell Press; IF~17)

Materials Today (Elsevier; IF~21)

Nano-Micro Letters (Springer Nature; IF~32)

Bioactive Materials (Elsevier/KeAi; IF~18)

Smart Medicine (Wiley’s new journal)

Med-X (Springer Nature’s new journal)

Nano TransMed (Tsinghua University Press’s new journal)

Guest Editor:

eLife

Bioactive Materials (Elsevier/KeAi; IF~18)

Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B (Elsevier; IF~15)

Journal of Nanobiotechnology (Springer Nature/BMC; IF~11)

Theranostics (IF~12)

Communications Chemistry (Springer Nature; IF~6)

iScience (Cell Press; IF~5)