About

Jiajing Wang is a Vice President of Strategic Risk Management at Citigroup, where she leverages her expertise to enhance enterprise-wide risk management practices. In this role, she spearheads the Lessons Learned Program, collaborating across departments to identify, assess, monitor, and mitigate strategic risks, and develops actionable insights for strategic planning. She also leads the quarterly Risk Appetite Assessments for Citigroup, CBNA, and five core businesses, ensuring a robust understanding of the firm's risk profile. Prior to Citigroup, Jiajing was a Senior Investment Banking Analyst at CastleOak Securities L.P., involved in high-profile IPOs such as Airbnb, DoorDash, and Uber, as well as major debt, equity, and advisory transactions. She graduated as a Top-5 student from Columbia University's Enterprise Risk Management program and holds a bachelor's degree in Economics from New York University. She held FINRA Series 79, Series 63, and Securities Industry Essentials certifications. As a lecturer, she is dedicated to bridging the gap between theoretical concepts and practical application, drawing on her diverse experiences in global financial institutions and boutique investment banks. She is passionate about equipping students with the skills and knowledge necessary to excel in Finance and beyond. Besides her professional commitments, Jiajing is passionate about community service and animal welfare, having fostered and adopted multiple pets.

Research topics

• Biology
• Botany
• Biotechnology
• Genetics
• Engineering
• Ecology
• Pulp and paper industry
• Biochemistry
• Computational biology
• Cell biology

Selected publications

• Co-Production of Crystalline Cellulose and Biofuel from Low-Lignin Biomass

  BioEnergy Research · 2026-01-24

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Lignocellulosic biorefining has traditionally focused on either converting biomass into sugars for fuels or isolating solid cellulose for bioproducts. However, cost-effective strategies to maximize sugar yields while preserving crystalline cellulose remain underexplored. This study addresses that gap by optimizing cellulase enzymes to the co-production of fermentable sugars and crystalline cellulose. Laboratory-scale results also informed a techno-economic analysis (TEA) to evaluate the feasibility of industrial-scale implementation. To this end, a selective hydrolysis process was developed to target hemicelluloses and amorphous cellulose, while retaining crystalline regions, using an optimized enzyme cocktail tested on three feedstocks: unbleached hardwood pulp, wild-type poplar, and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-edited poplar. Optimization across varying pH and temperature conditions enabled effective selective hydrolysis. Low-lignin unbleached pulp and CRISPR-edited poplar, each containing less than 15% lignin on a dry weight basis, exhibited improved enzymatic accessibility and eliminated the need for pretreatment, resulting in higher sugar yields (74 g/L and 33 g/L, respectively) and more efficient downstream processing. An engineered yeast strain co-fermented C5 and C6 sugars into ethanol, leaving behind high-crystallinity cellulose. CRISPR-edited poplar outperformed wild type, with 18% more sugar and 25% more ethanol yield, while enhancing cellulose crystallinity. TEA estimated crystalline cellulose production costs at $4,438 per metric tonne from unbleached pulp and $1,474 from CRISPR-edited biomass, highlighting the economic advantage of engineered feedstocks. This work presents a novel lignocellulosic biorefining approach that, for the first time, prioritizes the co-production of fermentable sugars and crystalline cellulose from low-lignin biomass.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Multigene engineering in plants: Technologies, applications, and future prospects

  Biotechnology Advances · 2025-08-27 · 5 citations

  review
  PublisherDOI

• Abstract 116: Wallerian axon degeneration is required for chronic neuroinflammation and infarct-induced neurodegeneration

  Stroke · 2025-01-30

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Background: Ischemic stroke triggers a chronic B-lymphocyte response in the stroke core that is required for delayed post-stroke cognitive decline in mice. Because immune cells primarily infiltrate into connected subcortical axonal tracts after stroke, we hypothesized that degenerating axons promulgate a persistent neuroinflammation that is critical for late cognitive decline. To test this, we utilized mice deficient in Sarm1 ( Sarm1-/-), a molecular trigger of axon degeneration and the loss of which leads to axonal protection after injury. Methods: Wildtype and Sarm1-/- male mice (N=9 per condition) underwent distal MCA stroke followed by transient hypoxia, which reliably leads to infarct-induced neurodegeneration 7 weeks after injury. Innate (monocytes) and adaptive (T, B lymphocytes) immune cell infiltration were evaluated via immunohistochemistry 1&7 weeks after stroke. Cognition was assessed using the Barnes maze at both time points after stroke. Results: Absence of Sarm1 resulted in robust axonal protection after ischemic stroke. In connected thalamic region, mean immunostained intensity of axons was 166 in wildtype vs. 267 in Sarm1-/- (p < 0.005) 1 week, and 106 vs. 201 (p < 0.005) 7 weeks after stroke. Compared to wildtype mice, Sarm1-/- mice had an attenuated innate immune response in connected subcortical white matter 1 week after stroke (% area of CD68+ reactivity was 35 ± 5% in WT vs. 19 ± 4% in Sarm1-/- (p < 0.01), while peri-infarct CD68 was not different. Moreover, loss of Sarm1 reduced B220+ B-cell infiltration into the infarct 7 weeks after stroke. Percent area of B220+ reactivity was 30 ± 8% in WT vs 15 ± 7% in Sarm1-/- (p <0.05). Compared to wildtype littermates, Sarm1-/- mice were resistant to chronic post-stroke cognitive decline on the Barnes maze. There was no difference in cognition between cohorts 1 week after stroke but there was at 7 weeks. The mean escape latency was 97 ± 11 sec in wildtype vs 57 ± 9 sec in Sarm1-/ - mice (P<0.05). Conclusion: We report that Sarm1 -mediated axonal degeneration is critical for chronic neuroinflammation and delayed cognitive decline after ischemic stroke. Directly targeting axon degeneration by modulating Sarm1 activity provides a novel therapeutic approach to ameliorate infarct-induced neurodegeneration.

  PublisherDOI

• Woody plant cell walls: Fundamentals and utilization

  Molecular Plant · 2025-05-01 · 1 citations

  erratumOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• An Analysis of the Effect of Mine-Related Groundwater Use and Management on Surface Water in the Middle Humboldt River Basin

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• A Protoplast System for CRISPR-Cas Ribonucleoprotein Delivery in Pinus taeda and Abies fraseri

  Plants · 2025-03-22 · 6 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Climate change profoundly impacts the health, productivity, and resilience of forest ecosystems and threatens the sustainability of forest products and wood-based industries. Innovations to enhance tree growth, development, and adaptation offer unprecedented opportunities to strengthen ecosystem resilience and mitigate the effects of climate change. Here, we established a method for protoplast isolation, purification, and CRISPR-Cas ribonucleoprotein (RNP) delivery in Pinus taeda and Abies fraseri as a step towards accelerating the genetic improvement of these coniferous tree species. In this system, purified protoplasts could be isolated from somatic embryos with up to 2 × 106 protoplasts/g of tissue and transfected with proteins and nucleotides, achieving delivery efficiencies up to 13.5%. The delivery of functional RNPs targeting phenylalanine ammonia lyase in P. taeda and phytoene desaturase in A. fraseri yielded gene editing efficiencies that reached 2.1% and 0.3%, respectively. This demonstration of RNP delivery for DNA-free genome editing in the protoplasts of P. taeda and A. fraseri illustrates the potential of CRISPR-Cas to enhance the traits of value in ecologically and economically important tree species. The editing system provides a foundation for future efforts to regenerate genome-edited forest trees to improve ecosystem health and natural resource sustainability.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Advances in lignocellulosic feedstocks for bioenergy and bioproducts

  Nature Communications · 2025-02-01 · 160 citations

  reviewOpen accessSenior author

  Lignocellulose, an abundant renewable resource, presents a promising alternative for sustainable energy and industrial applications. However, large-scale adoption of lignocellulosic feedstocks faces considerable obstacles, including scalability, bioprocessing efficiency, and resilience to climate change. This Review examines current efforts and future opportunities for leveraging lignocellulosic feedstocks in bio-based energy and products, with a focus on enhancing conversion efficiency and scalability. It also explores emerging biotechnologies such as CRISPR-based genome editing informed by machine learning, aimed at improving feedstock traits and reducing the environmental impact of fossil fuel dependence. Lignocellulose is a promising feedstock to produce bioenergy and biomaterials. Here, the authors review current efforts, including genome editing informed by machine learning, for lignocellulosic feedstock-based bioenergy and biomaterials production and provide outlook for improving feedstock traits.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Co-Production of Crystalline Cellulose and Biofuel from Low-Lignin Biomass

  Research Square · 2025-07-23

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Editorial: Research advances on forest tree functional genomics and breeding

  Frontiers in Plant Science · 2024-12-04

  editorialOpen access

  Forest ecosystems-one of the biggest carbon sinks in the world-play a key role in terrestrial biodiversity and carbon sequestration. As important sustainable resources, trees serve as rich sources of agronomic and economic traits, providing wood, pulp and paper, fiber-related products, energy, and chemical products. Over the past few decades, conventional crossbreeding has helped generate plant varieties with improved agronomic and economic traits. However, conventional crossbreeding in forestry is time-intensive and has reached a bottleneck. Thus, improvement in growth and agronomic and economically important traits in tree species requires attention. Biotechnology has recently resulted in great progress in crop breeding, owing to the development of high-quality genome assembly and annotation tools, gene identification techniques, and efficient gene editing. Nonetheless, compared to crop species, extensive efforts are needed for the assembly and annotation of high-quality genomes, identification of key genes regulating agronomic and economically important traits, and highly efficient gene editing in tree species that exhibit high heterozygosity.This Frontiers Research Topic aims to present the latest fundamental discoveries in the field of forest tree genomics, including genetic studies focusing on the genes and pathways associated with key agronomic and economically important traits, molecular mechanisms underlying secondary growth regulation, and the potential utilization of biotechnology in genetic improvement of woody plant species. This volume is organized into the following sections: (1) genome assembly and annotation; (2) functional identification of key genes regulating tree growth, vascular development, and stress response; and (3) genetic transformation and gene editing in woody plants.The first tree species with a completely sequenced genome was Populus trichocarpa (Tuskan et al., 2006). With the increase in sequencing depth and length and decrease in sequencing cost, the genomes of several woody plants, including poplar, have been sequenced (Liu et Tree biomass is determined using longitudinal and lateral growth. The cultivation of fast-growing trees is of great interest to produce adequate biomass in a shorter time. In this regard, researchers have attempted to identify the key genes regulating the growth rate of tree species for genetic improvement. Akutsu etal. used genomic selection (GS) for growth characteristics in an open-pollinated breeding population of Korean red pine (Pinus densiflora) and concluded that the trained GS model was more effective than traditional breeding methods. Kang et al. conducted GS prediction on a half-sib progeny population of Shorea macrophylla using six methods, and showed that GS with GWAS-based SNP selection was useful for breeding tree species.Wood formation, or secondary growth, is a biological process specific to woody plants.The continuous activities of the cambium, comprising cambial cell proliferation, cell expansion, secondary wall thickening, and programmed cell death (PCD), produce xylem (wood) (Du et al., 2023). Key regulators of cambial cell proliferation and secondary wall thickening in poplar trees have been identified using forward and reverse genetics (Hu et PCD cells, and late PCD cells using flow cytometry. This method can also improve the analysis of gene expression dynamics along the continuous developmental stages of PCD.A/T-rich and zinc-binding protein. PtaPLATZ18-SRDX transgenic lines exhibited wider xylem compared to the wildtype plants, with a higher lignin content in transgenic wood.Moreover, the transgenic plants exhibited significantly increased height, suggesting the potential of this gene in promoting tree growth and wood production.Tree growth is immensely affected by environmental factors such as drought and high temperatures (Jiang et al., 2023), which induce several physiological and molecular processes, such as abscisic acid synthesis in roots and leaves. Yu et al. analyzed the transcriptomic profile of Phoebe bournei, an important afforestation tree species in the subtropical region of China, exposed to drought stress. Through gene co-expression network analysis, they identified two core transcription factors, TGA4 and APRR2, involved in drought. Nonetheless, further genetic experiments are required to determine the functions of the candidate genes.Genetic transformation is vital to characterize the function of a gene. In addition to genome assembly, genetic transformation using stems (Song et al., 2006) and leaves as explants (Li et al., 2017) makes P. trichocarpa a model species. As P. trichocarpa is an endemic species, researchers have resort to other poplar species, such as P. alba, P. alba × P. glandulosa, and P. tremula. Transformation in poplar, which relies on tissue culture, is mostly mediated by Agrobacterium tumefaciens, although A. rhizogenes-mediated transformation is independent of tissue culture and produces hairy roots, from which plants can regenerate. In this regard, Ying et al. reviewed recent advances in A. rhizogenes-mediated transformation and Ri breeding in woody plants and emphasized its potential application in the difficult-to-propagate woody species.Gene editing has been increasingly applied for the genetic improvement of plant species because of its high precision (Borthakur et al., 2022). Fan et al. first used the type II clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-associated protein (Cas9) system in P. tomentosa (Fan et al., 2015). Furthermore, the CRISPR-Cas12 system has been used to knock out multiple targets of Phytoene desaturase 8 in poplar (An et al., 2020). In this study, An et al. also evaluated the effects of temperature on gene editing efficiency and observed that the majority of editing included large-fragment deletions. Similarly, Movahedi et al. examined the effects of three factors on editing and showed that high Agrobacteria concentration, increased DDT number, and optimized homologous arm length resulted in efficient homology-directed repair. Currently, the CRISPR-Cas system is most commonly used for gene editing in poplar, but different woody plant species may need different CRISPR-Cas systems. Thus, increased efforts are needed to test the efficiency of gene editing in woody plants other than poplar.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Beyond low lignin: Identifying the primary barrier to plant biomass conversion by fermentative bacteria

  Science Advances · 2024-10-18 · 14 citations

  articleOpen access

  Renewable alternatives for nonelectrifiable fossil-derived chemicals are needed and plant matter, the most abundant biomass on Earth, provide an ideal feedstock. However, the heterogeneous polymeric composition of lignocellulose makes conversion difficult. Lignin presents a formidable barrier to fermentation of nonpretreated biomass. Extensive chemical and enzymatic treatments can liberate fermentable carbohydrates from plant biomass, but microbial routes offer many advantages, including concomitant conversion to industrial chemicals. Here, testing of lignin content of nonpretreated biomass using the cellulolytic thermophilic bacterium, Anaerocellum bescii , revealed that the primary microbial degradation barrier relates to methoxy substitutions in lignin. This contrasts with optimal lignin composition for chemical pretreatment that favors high S/G ratio and low H lignin. Genetically modified poplar trees with diverse lignin compositions confirm these findings. In addition, poplar trees with low methoxy content achieve industrially relevant levels of microbial solubilization without any pretreatments and with no impact on tree fitness in greenhouse.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Richard N. Pierson

  Massachusetts General Hospital

  250 shared

• Steven B. Heymsfield

  Louisiana State University

  196 shared

• Donald P. Kotler

  Albert Einstein College of Medicine

  194 shared

• Dympna Gallagher

  135 shared

• Vincent L. Chiang

  Northeast Forestry University

  123 shared

• John C. Thornton

  Columbia University

  118 shared

• Carl Grünfeld

  San Francisco VA Health Care System

  112 shared

• Subhasree Raghavan

  106 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Forestry and Environmental Resources

  North Carolina State University

  2012