Faculty Research: Fan Dong
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Research Areas: Cell Signaling; Genetics and Genomics; |
Professor M.D., Suzhou Medical College, China 1983 Office: WO 3257B publications |
Research
The long term goal of my research is to understand the molecular mechanisms involved in the regulation of blood cell development in the bone marrow and why disruption of these regulatory mechanisms may lead to blood malignancies, such as leukemia and lymphoma. Specifically, I am interested in two important regulators of blood cell development, i.e., granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) and growth factor independence 1 (Gfi1). G-CSF is a growth factor that plays a major role in the development of neutrophils, a type of white blood cells involved in host defense against bacterial infection. Gfi1 is a transcription factor that is critical for the development of white blood cells including myeloid and lymphoid cells. Aberrant activation of G-CSF signaling or Gfi1 has been implicated in leukemia and lymphoma, which contribute to approximately 8% of all cancer deaths in the United States.