Yuan Pan

Dr. Yuan Pan is an Assistant Professor at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, holding dual appointments in the Department of Symptom Research (Division of Internal Medicine) and the Department of Neuro-Oncology (Division of Cancer Medicine). Her research bridges neuroscience and cancer biology, focusing on neuron-cancer interactions and neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1)-related gliomas. She leads the Pan Lab, which investigates how neuronal activity, glial biology, and chemotherapy impact nervous system cancers, aiming to improve patient outcomes through novel therapeutic strategies.

Dr. Pan trained with renowned scientists Drs. David Gutmann and Michelle Monje, contributing seminal work on NF1 mutations and optic glioma pathogenesis (Pan et al., Nature, 2021). Since establishing her independent lab in 2022, she has secured CPRIT Scholar funding and advanced studies on neuroimmune interactions, tumor microenvironment dynamics, and activity-dependent tumor initiation. Her work highlights the critical role of neural circuits in cancer progression.

• Key Awards: CPRIT Scholar in Cancer Research (2022)
• Research Themes: Neuronal-glial crosstalk, neurofibromatosis, tumor immunology, chemotherapy effects
• Labs/Teams: Pan Lab (MD Anderson Cancer Center)

Her publications reveal a focus on low-grade glioma mechanisms, chemokine signaling, and systems biology approaches to identify tumor-specific networks. Clinical and translational efforts aim to translate these findings into improved diagnostics and therapies.