Haokun (Hector) Wang

My research investigates how cells sense and respond to proteostatic stress via an understudied subnuclear route. Specifically, I study nuclear speckles, membrane-less RNA-protein condensates, as early effectors against endoplasmic reticulum stress that act ahead of the canonical unfolded protein response. Combining quantitative live-cell imaging, proximity-labeling proteomics, CRISPR-based loss-of-function studies, and m⁶A epitranscriptomic profiling, I work to define how RNA-modification machinery recruited to speckles helps prime proteostasis gene expression. More broadly, I'm drawn to questions at the intersection of biomolecular condensates, RNA biology, and cellular stress responses.