Dean G. Tang, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Dean was trained as an Oncological Pathologist and is currently an Associate Professor in Department of Carcinogenesis, Science-Park Research Division, the University of Texas M.D Anderson Cancer Center. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the College of Pharmacy, University of Texas at Austin. His Master of Science Thesis research (1986 – 1989), conducted in Dr. Hong-shen Tian’s laboratory in Wuhan University School of Medicine, studied the effects of some arachidonic acid metabolites on lung cancer metastasis. To continue his research on metastasis, Dean joined Dr. Ken Honn’s lab in Wayne State University (WSU) in 1989 to study the role of integrin receptors in mediating tumor cell – extracellular matrix interaction, tumor cell invasion, and tumor cell extravasation.  Dean obtained his Ph.D in Cancer Biology in 1994 and stayed at WSU for a few years to explore apoptosis-based anti-prostate cancer therapeutics. Bored with the “traditional” cancer biology approaches, Dean decided to study developmental biology. In 1998, he was awarded a Burroughs-Wellcome Hitchings-Elion Fellowship and joined Dr. Martin Raff’s lab in Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory for Molecular & Cellular Biology (LMCB) of University College London (U.K) as a post-doctoral fellow to study oligodendrocyte precursor cell development (cell-cycle control, differentiation, apoptosis, and senescence). Dean returned to America June 2000 to join the M.D Anderson Cancer Center Science-Park Research Division. In the past several years, Dean and his colleagues have been studying cancer stem cells with a focus on prostate cancer stem/progenitor cells.

Dean’s NIH Biosketch