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Home > News > Microbes and Manga: Illustrating Harris Wang’s Research

Microbes and Manga: Illustrating Harris Wang’s Research

News | June 25, 2025
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biology genome manga microbes microbiome synthetic biology
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A black and white comic illustration shows a smiling man in a superhero suit and cape flying through space, surrounded by swirling DNA strands and planets.

Since 2021, the Vilcek Foundation has partnered with immigrant manga artist Hiroki Otsuka to creatively amplify the remarkable contributions of immigrants through biographical manga. Whether they are aiding in the microscopic fight to keep us healthy or advocating for the arts, immigrants are everyday superheroes bettering our society. 

Harris Wang, PhD, associate professor of systems biology, pathology, and cell biology, is one such hero. In this sixth edition of our manga comics, Otsuka highlights Wang’s bold work to fight bad guys—on the microscopic scale, that is! 

Born in Beijing, Wang was awarded the 2022 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for his ingenious work in synthetic biology. This multidisciplinary field artificially replicates elements and models found in nature to solve problems that affect everyday life. 

Wang used this process to create Multiplex Automated Genome Engineering (MAGE). This platform is able to replicate and ultimately reprogram entire genomes, which is just what Wang did! He re-created and then altered E. coli, a bacteria that lives in our gut. This breakthrough has massive implications for medicine, biology, and individual microbiome health—pretty super! 

Just like in gut health, Wang believes that diversity in scientific research is crucial. As he says, “You can learn a lot from the tiny world inside you!”

A comic book panel in black and white features Dr. Harris Wang, a man with glasses and short, dark hair, in a superhero costume with a cape, raising one hand. He stands in front of a background filled with various cartoon microbes, some smiling, some frowning. Text boxes discuss the human microbiome and the impact of antibiotics.
A black and white comic page features Dr. Harris Wang as a superhero with glasses and a cape. A woman clutches her stomach, saying it’s more than stomachaches. Text explains the microbiome’s role in protecting against disease. Dr. Wang describes engineering microbes with trackers to study them. He observes microbes digesting food, processing medicine, and training the immune system. In the final panel, friendly microbes repel harmful ones, inspiring him to strengthen the microbiome.
A black and white comic book panel shows Dr. Harris Wang, a man with glasses and short, dark hair, gesturing with his hands. Above him, two large, anthropomorphic microbes, one muscular and one with flowing hair, fight smaller, spiky pathogens labeled
A black and white comic page composed of four panels. The top panel shows Dr. Harris Wang, a man with glasses, smiling and speaking. The second panel is split into two, showing a young boy with glasses at an airport labeled
A two-panel comic in black and white. The top panel depicts Dr. Harris Wang, a man with glasses and a superhero costume, flying with his arms outstretched against a background of swirling DNA strands and planets. The bottom panel shows Dr. Wang standing with arms spread, surrounded by a diverse group of people, all looking towards him, with light rays emanating from behind him.
  • A comic book panel in black and white features Dr. Harris Wang, a man with glasses and short, dark hair, in a superhero costume with a cape, raising one hand. He stands in front of a background filled with various cartoon microbes, some smiling, some frowning. Text boxes discuss the human microbiome and the impact of antibiotics.
  • A black and white comic page features Dr. Harris Wang as a superhero with glasses and a cape. A woman clutches her stomach, saying it’s more than stomachaches. Text explains the microbiome’s role in protecting against disease. Dr. Wang describes engineering microbes with trackers to study them. He observes microbes digesting food, processing medicine, and training the immune system. In the final panel, friendly microbes repel harmful ones, inspiring him to strengthen the microbiome.
  • A black and white comic book panel shows Dr. Harris Wang, a man with glasses and short, dark hair, gesturing with his hands. Above him, two large, anthropomorphic microbes, one muscular and one with flowing hair, fight smaller, spiky pathogens labeled
  • A black and white comic page composed of four panels. The top panel shows Dr. Harris Wang, a man with glasses, smiling and speaking. The second panel is split into two, showing a young boy with glasses at an airport labeled
  • A two-panel comic in black and white. The top panel depicts Dr. Harris Wang, a man with glasses and a superhero costume, flying with his arms outstretched against a background of swirling DNA strands and planets. The bottom panel shows Dr. Wang standing with arms spread, surrounded by a diverse group of people, all looking towards him, with light rays emanating from behind him.
Download the manga

Our other manga feature superheroes include molecular biologist Mohamed Abou Donia, filmmaker and musician Blitz Bazawule, neuroscientist Viviana Gradinaru, architect and urban planner Denise Scott Brown, and chef Fabián von Hauske Valtierra.

More on our Manga artist 

Born in Japan, Hiroki Otsuka has been a professional manga artist since 1994. His work has appeared in major Japanese publications and in galleries and art fairs in New York, Tokyo, and Basel, and in the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.


Manga Transcript

Dr. Harris Wang: 2022 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science

Did you know that trillions of microbes live inside you? It’s true, my friend. Thousands of different species, too. Together, they’re called the microbiome. And they make you a healthier person.

But one fact has become alarmingly clear…

…the overuse of antibiotics and an imbalanced diet in modern life has drastically peaked our microbiome.

I’m not just talking stomachaches! A mighty microbiome can protect us from heart disease, obesity, inflammation, mental illness… the list keeps growing!

As a synthetic biologist, I can engineer microbes in many different ways. For instance, by adding a tiny tracker on them, I can record where they go and understand their world…

Their stories are extraordinary! They helped me see what microbes do, individually and as a group. Some digest food or process medicines…

…some help train the immune system…

…and they can even repel bad microbes. So how can we make our microbiome stronger? This gave me an idea.

I started to ask… what if we build new heroes to send into this tiny world? I’m perfectly serious! Synthetic microbes could be our best allies. They would watch and regulate what we digest. Create and deliver new medicines. Fight off pathogens and promote health and healing all across the body. They can even train our own microbiome with these new skills.

It’s challenging work. But engineering the human gut microbiome could be a lot like… well, changing a faulty gene in the body. You have to fix one problem without upsetting a delicate system.

Isn’t it exciting to uncover a new world? And then make a difference in it?

Reminds me of coming to America at age nine… It was lonely. A new language. New culture.

Like a new bacterium, I learned to fit in and express my own special qualities. I became a part of my thriving community.

My talent was in the sciences. That meant I had a few tricks—like the bacteria I later created, I could learn to help the world around me function a little better.

In tinkering carefully with DNA—creating microbes with new abilities—I found my calling.

If we can begin to understand the worlds inside us, we can begin to heal what’s broken. We’ll reverse the damage that modern life caused the microbiome.

And a diverse microbiome—well, that’s a good model for us all. Isn’t it?

Science works better with a richness of perspectives, too. And as far as I’m concerned, society follows that same rule. Millions of contributors, doing their part.

Learn more about Harris Wang’s lab
Tags
biology genome manga microbes microbiome synthetic biology
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Related News

February 15, 2022

Harris Wang: Using synthetic biology to understand our world

Wang’s creative and independent thinking has established him as a leader in the field of synthetic biology.
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November 3, 2021

Worlds Inside: Manga Explores the Work of Biochemist Mohamed Abou Donia

The second in our manga series honoring Vilcek Foundation Prizewinners, developed in partnership with Hiroki Otsuka.
March 8, 2021

Mohamed Abou Donia: “How our microbial partners affect our health.”

Mohamed Abou Donia studies small-molecule-mediated interactions in complex microbial communities, and their impact on host health, including humans and other organisms.
Mohamed Abou Donia framed by an archway of one of the Princeton University buildings.

You may also be interested in

Harris Wang

Harris Wang receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for the development and application of Mutiplex Automated Genome Engineering (MAGE), a platform to track, program, and engineer entire microbial communities and ecosystems for a range of diagnostic and therapeutic applications.
Portrait of Harris Wang

Mohamed Abou Donia

Mohamed Abou Donia receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for demonstrating the potential of the human microbiome as a source of novel drugs and uncovering the basis of microbiome-driven drug metabolism.
Portrait of Mohamed Abou Donia

Martin Jonikas

Martin Jonikas receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for molecular studies on Chlamydomonas, a model photosynthetic organism, with long-term implications for improving food-crop yield and combating climate change.
Portrait of Martin Jonikas

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