The Fanconi Cancer Foundation-AACR NextGen Grant for Transformative Cancer Research represents the AACR’s flagship funding initiative to stimulate highly innovative research from young investigators. This grant mechanism is intended to promote and support creative, paradigm-shifting cancer research that may not be funded through conventional channels. It is expected that this grant will catalyze significant scientific discoveries and help talented young investigators gain scientific independence.

2024 grantee

Research

The accumulation of DNA damage and genetic mutations ultimately causes cancer. This process is greatly accelerated in children and young adults with Fanconi anemia (FA), a devastating inherited bone marrow failure and cancer syndrome caused by deficiency in the FA DNA repair pathway. A recent advancement in the field is the discovery that our bodies produce high quantities of reactive chemicals called aldehydes, which cause DNA damage in FA patients. In this project, Dr. Wang will leverage mouse models and FA patient samples to study the nutritional and metabolic pathways that regulate aldehyde production, with the aim of targeting these pathways as novel cancer prevention strategies for FA patients.

Biography

Dr. Wang obtained his medical and doctoral degrees from the University of Cambridge and MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in the UK. He trained in internal medicine at King’s College Hospital in London, followed by hematology specialization at Cambridge University Hospitals. As a Cancer Research UK Clinician Scientist Fellow, he conducted his postdoc research into formaldehyde as a cause of DNA damage in blood stem cells, at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Cambridge Stem Cell Institute. Dr. Wang is currently an Assistant Professor at the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University where his lab studies metabolism and DNA damage.

Acknowledgment of Support

“I am truly honored and excited to receive this award from the Fanconi Cancer Foundation and the AACR. As an early career investigator, this vital funding will accelerate our research and enable new collaborations towards improving our knowledge into DNA damage in Fanconi anemia and designing novel cancer prevention interventions.”