Biography:
I graduated from Shanghai Medical University and later came to the U.S. and obtained a PhD in molecular biology at the Medical College of Ohio. I researched cancer biology at the University of Pennsylvania and then at Yale University as a postdoctoral associate. I completed an internal medicine residency program at the Yale-affiliated hospital of Saint Raphael and trained at Einstein/Montefiore Medical Center during a hematology and oncology fellowship. After that, I joined Cornell University Medical College and New York-Presbyterian Hospital as an Assistant Professor specializing in GI cancers, and clinical investigator involved in both clinical and translational research. I was the Cornell site PI for several early and late phase clinical trials, including the phase 1 CXCR4 inhibitor AMD3100/Plerixafor immunotherapy trial and wrote the protocol for an investigator-initiated trial (IIT) of high-dose IV vitamin C in solid tumors, which subsequently won a SU2C award for Cornell. In 2017, I left Cornell and joined Merck as a Director of Oncology Research and led several global Phase I-III immuno-oncology trials, including Keynote 177 and 164 in MSI-H colorectal cancer, and Keynote 651 in non-MSI-H CRC. Most recently, I led the designing and protocol writing of a Phase III study of combinational immunotherapy vs standard of care chemotherapy in third-line non-MSI-H CRC.
Although developing novel immunotherapy at Merck for cancer patients with high unmet needs was very gratifying, I missed direct patient care. Thus, I returned to academia and joined Roswell Park on 8/1/2019 to focus on head and neck cancer patient care and clinical/translational research. I will also provide care for patients with head and neck, and colorectal cancers, as well as, participating in the running of phase I program to investigate safety and early efficacy of new drugs and combinations.
Positions
Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center
- Associate Professor, Division of GI Oncology
- Associate Director, Early Phase Clinical Trial
- Associate Director for Solid Tumor, Center for Early Phase Clinical Trials
Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo
- Associate Professor
- Department of Medicine
Background
Education and Training:
- PhD - Molecular Biology, Medical College of Ohio, Toledo, Ohio
- MD - Shanghai Medical University, China
Residency:
- Hospital of Saint Raphael (Yale New Haven Hospital Chapel Campus), New Haven, CT
Fellowship:
- Montefiore Medical Center/Einstein School of Medicine, Bronx, NY
Board Certification:
- American Board of Internal Medicine, Internal Medicine
- American Board of Internal Medicine, Medical Oncology
Professional Memberships:
- American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
- American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)
- Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology Committee of Overseas Experts (CSCO - COE)
- European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO)
Professional Experience:
- Director, Oncology Clinical Development, Merck Research Laboratory, Rahway, NJ
- Assistant Professor, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY
- Member, Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center, New York, NY
Honors & Awards:
- 2009 - Chairperson and Invited Speaker, “Notch Signaling and Cancer,” American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual meeting, Denver, CO
- 2001 - American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET) graduate student travel award for Experimental Biology meeting, Orlando, FL