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Headshot of BioGENEius Challenge Awardee Emily Wang
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BioGENEius Challenge: Meet Emily Wang

Emily Wang is a software engineer at Facebook and was the 2014 winner of the International BioGENEius Challenge. A graduate of Harvard University, Emily began biomedical lab research while still in high school and is credited with the development of mRuby3, to date, the brightest red fluorescent protein.

During high school Emily sent a cold email to a bioengineering professor at Stanford University. It made an impression and so did being persistent. Emily promised to self-study and was granted permission to research in his lab.

Science empowers us to understand the world and build solutions that meaningfully impact people. By celebrating scientific progress, we share and inspire new ideas that pioneer exciting research and build upon each scientist’s work to push the bounds of possibility forward.
Emily Wang


Emily actually started building her foundation in biology research in another lab, and was taught safety protocols, how to design experiments, culture mouse colon cells and carry out assays. These experiences gave her a running start to participate in three Bay Area BioGENEius Challenges where she learned from the judges, received helpful feedback and was inspired to set high expectations as a scientist. She has published works on the intersection of artificial intelligence and biology.

About the Champions of Science® Storytelling Challenge—BioGENEius Edition
The Champions of Science Storytelling Challenge—BioGENEius Edition was open exclusively to alumni of the Biotechnology Institute’s BioGENEius Challenge—an international biotechnology competition held annually for high school students. Johnson & Johnson has been a longtime supporter of the BioGENEius Challenge as part of our commitment to fuel a strong and diverse pipeline of scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs.