Danzhou Yang PhD

Dr. Danzhou Yang is a Distinguished Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Purdue University and the Martha and Fred Borch Chair in Cancer Therapeutics, and a Member of Purdue Cancer Center and Purdue Institute of Drug Discovery. She is an internationally recognized leader in DNA molecular targets for cancer therapeutics, particularly DNA secondary structures known as G-quadruplexes. Yang uses NMR spectroscopy to study high-resolution molecular structures, and is regarded as an outstanding collaborator and educator. Before she moved to Purdue University, she was a Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Arizona and a comprehensive member of Arizona Cancer Center and BIO5 Institute. She received her B.S. degree from the University of Science and Technology of China, Ph.D. degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and post-doctoral training in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Kentucky. Her research program focuses on cancer-specific DNA-associated molecular targets, such as MYC,BCL-2, and VEGF, and structure-based rational design of new anticancer drugs targeting DNA and DNA-associated proteins. Her accomplishments in graduate education were recognized in 2017 with her appointment as associate dean for graduate programs in the College of Pharmacy. She has published 89 peer-reviewed papers in top-rated journals, and submitted seven patent applications and 22 Protein Data Bank structures. Yang has lectured extensively on her research, and her laboratory program has been funded continuously by peer-reviewed NIH grants since 2000.