Chi Van Dang, MD, PhD

Dr. Dang is Scientific Director of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and professor at The Wistar Institute. He is a physician-scientist, who served as Director of the Division of Hematology and then as Vice Dean for Research at Johns Hopkins. He then served as Director of the Abramson Cancer Center at Penn before assuming his current positions. Dr. Dang is celebrated for his contributions to the understanding of the function of the Myc oncogene, commonly altered in many cancers. He was first to establish a mechanistic link between Myc and cellular energy metabolism, which sparked the concept that genetic alterations could lead to metabolic reprogramming within tumors. His research provided evidence that aberrant cancer cell signaling pathways stimulated by various mutations exhibit dependence for specific nutrients to drive further proliferation. These observations have been heralded for helping to explain the “Warburg Effect” observed in cancer cells and have led to subsequent studies dedicated to the targeted disruption of aberrant cell metabolic pathways to inhibit cancer progression.

Dr. Dang served on the Biden Cancer Moonshot Blue Ribbon Panel and is Editor-in-Chief of Cancer Research, Chair of the NCI Board of Scientific Advisors, and a member of the National Academy of Medicine, fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Association of American Physicians, and the American Society for Clinical Investigation.