Chi Van Dang was appointed professor at The Wistar Institute.
Prior to his appointments at Wistar and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Dang was the director of the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania and the John H. Glick, Abramson Cancer Center Director’s Professor.
Dang, the scientific director of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in New York, shapes scientific strategy and oversees operations of its Lausanne, Oxford, and San Diego Branches.
He is also responsible for aligning the missions of six independent Ludwig Centers across the United States. Wistar will host Dang’s Ludwig Laboratory, which will focus on his own research on cancer and immune cell metabolism and the MYC cancer gene. The gene was discovered by Dang and his lab to control gene expression that affects metabolism and cancer cell growth.
At his Ludwig Laboratory at Wistar, Dang will continue his cancer biology work in the field of circadian biology, which focuses on how animals and their cells function in response to the day-night, feeding-fasting cycle, which profoundly affects metabolism.
This research could lead to optimizing therapies that affect or utilize metabolism. His goal is to capitalize on interest in cancer metabolism and determine how cancer cells interact with the immune system, to identify new pathways to disable cancer cells.
Dang has authored more than 200 scientific and medical articles and book chapters as well as books. He is the recipient of numerous honors, including appointment to the Blue-Ribbon Panel of Vice President Joe Biden’s National Cancer Moonshot Initiative.
Dang is currently chair of the NCI Board of Scientific Advisors. He is a fellow to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, American Society for Clinical Investigation, and The Association of American Physicians.
