With ancestry in Yancheng, Jiangsu, Republic of China, Wang was born in Shanghai[1] to Wáng Zhāng (王章) and Yú Jiéhóng (俞洁虹/俞潔虹).

After completing his doctorate, Wang joined the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in 1972, as a senior scientist.

STS-51B/Spacelab-3 was launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, and returned to land at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

Wang received permission to attempt a fix and was successful in repairing the experiment, though his remark caused concern for the safety of the crew and the mission.

That was not because of anybody we had on our flight but because of a concern about someone who had flown before 51-G."[2] At mission conclusion, Wang traveled over 2.9 million miles in 110 Earth orbits, and logged over 168 hours in space.

[3] Using insights from compound droplet experiments performed in the microgravity of NASA Shuttle Mission STS-51-B, Dr. Taylor Wang, has developed an immunoisolation encapsulation system that protects cellular transplants, and sustains cell function — without immunosuppression drugs and their resulting negative side effects.

Results of Encapsulife's successful large animal trials, have recently been published in peer-reviewed research in Transplantation Journal.

In this landmark research, encapsulated canine pancreatic islets were transplanted into dogs rendered diabetic by total pancreatectomy.

The allotransplantations of encapsulated islets were well tolerated and biocompatible, and normalized fasting blood glucose levels in all of 9 dogs, were achieved for over two hundred days, with a single transplantation.