Shanshan Wang is Group Leader for Cell-Based Production, Growth & Morphology at the Plant Biology Institute (PBI) at EIT. She leads a research team focused on understanding and engineering the cellular properties required to create high-performing, scalable plant cell cultures for industrial production. Her team uses cutting-edge high-content, high-throughput screening technologies to measure and improve plant cell line performance.

Prior to working at EIT, Shanshan worked as a postdoctoral scientist at The Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich, where she engineered plant receptor proteins to develop new sources of pathogen resistance. Later, at the Max Planck Institute for Biology, Tübingen, she used single-cell genomics to characterise gene regulatory networks underpinning cell-type-specific responses during plant–microbe interactions. She obtained her doctoral degree from Tsinghua University, studying autophagy and cell death in plants.

Across these areas, Shanshan has developed experience in experimental research and bioinformatics analysis. She is motivated by ambitious biological questions and the transformative potential of new technologies, especially those that enable researchers to understand and engineer biology at cellular resolution.

Outside the lab, she enjoys playing and watching football, painting and spending time with her children.