Chi Van Dang

Chi Van Dang is hematological oncologist and researcher, currently serving as the Scientific Director of Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research.

Early life and academics[]

Chi Van Dang was born in Vietnam as one of ten children.^[1] Dang's father was Vietnam's first neurosurgeon and was once the dean of the University of Saigon School of Medicine.^[1] After arriving in the United States in 1967, Dang would complete his B.S. degree in Chemistry at the University of Michigan in 1975,^[2] his Ph.D in chemistry at Georgetown University in 1978, and M.D. from Johns Hopkins University, in 1982.^[1][3] At the University of California, San Francisco, he completed a fellowship on Hematology-Oncology training where he started to become familiar with the MYC gene.^[4]

Career[]

Dang would take a faculty position at Johns Hopkins, eventually becoming the Vice Dean for Research and Director of its Institute for Cell Engineering.^[1] He would join the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania, becoming its director in 2011.^[5] From 2002 to 2003, he was the President of the American Society for Clinical Investigation.^[2] In his 2003 presidential address, he remarked, "I wish to remind all of us of the power of healing. Be it in the laboratory, at the cageside, bedside or computerside, we, as physicians, all have the ability to heal."^[6]

In 2006, he became a member of the National Academy of Medicine.^[2] In 2011, he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.^[7] In 2017, he was appointed Scientific Director of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research.^[1] Soon after, he was appointed professor at the Wistar Institute which would also host his Ludwig Laboratory during his tenure as The Ludwig Institute's Scientific Director.^[8]

In 2018, he was announced as Editor-in-Chief of Cancer Research, a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Association for Cancer Research, giving his first editorial in January.^[9]

Research[]

Dang research has focused on cancer cells and genetics, notably on energy utilization of cancer cells.^[1] Research Dang's laboratories has contributed to the understanding of the function of the MYC a gene associated with different cancers.^[1][10] By establishing the first mechanistic link between MYC and cellular energy metabolism, their research contributed to the concept of genetic alterations re-programming the energy utilization of tumors and rendering cancer cells to specific fuel sources.^[10] His collaboration with research has helped established the concep of the MYC gene as a central regulator of cell proliferation and cellular metabolism.^[7]

Eric Fearon conducted his postdoctoral research in Dang's laboratory, where he developed a system for the study of protein-protein interactions in living mammalian cells.^[11]

References[]