Donna Dang, Phd Email & Phone Number

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Provides programmatic support and grants administration across the Pew Biomedical Research programs portfolio which include the Pew Biomedical Scholars, Pew-Stewart Scholars for Cancer Research, and the Pew Latin American Fellows programs.Develops strategic approaches to adapt to an evolving state of science.Fosters a strong sense of community for early-career investigators (postdoctoral fellows and assistant professors) and Pew alumni to promote impactful and equitable research.Supports the communications team to share groundbreaking research from the Pew Biomedical Research programs.

Nashville, Tennessee, United States

Laboratory of Ben Ho Park, MD, PhDPeer-reviewed publications:Dang DK., Park BH. “Circulating tumor DNA: current challenges for clinical utility.” The Journal of Clinical Investigation. 2022. DOI: 10.1172/JCI154941

Presented and put together a best practices grant making guide for biomedical funders by collecting and utilizing resources from member organizations and from webinars, national meetings, and from the HRA email listserv.

San Francisco Bay Area

Laboratory of Felix Feng, MDPerformed a CRISPRi screen in prostate cancer cells to determine genetic targets for both sensitivity and resistance in the presence of an androgen receptor inhibitor.Peer-reviewed publications:Das R., Sjöström M., Shrestha R., Yogodzinski C., Egusa EA., Chesner LN., Chen WS., Chou J., Dang DK., Swinderman JT., Ge A., Hua JT., Kabir S., Quigley DA., Small EJ., Ashworth A., Feng FY., Gilbert LA. “An integrated functional and clinical genomics approach reveals genes driving aggressive metastatic prostate cancer.” Nature Communications. 2021. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-24919-7

Baltimore, Maryland Area

Laboratory of Rajini Rao, Ph.D.Simultaneously contributed to two separate projects:-Determined that the calcium pump SPCA2 has a role in cell cycle progression in breast cancer as well as being a downregulated epithelial gene upon the Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition (EMT).-We have demonstrated that the dysregulation of a novel ion transport protein is a key factor in the increased severity of cyst formation in polycystic kidney disease, and we show that this dysregulation is linked to altered Ca2+ transients.Technical Skills:-Cell culture: 2D & 3D cell culture, proliferation assays, cell-viability analysis, transient transfection, lentiviral production, lentiviral infection, CRISPR-Cas9 technology-Molecular biology: site-directed mutagenesis, shRNA design, cloning, DNA collection, RNA purification, cDNA synthesis, quantitative PCR (qPCR)-Flow cytometry, immunofluorescent sample preparation, Western blot protein analysis-Live cell Ca2+ imaging (Fura2-AM), confocal microscopy, light microscopy, brightfield microscopy-ImageJ, GraphPad Prism, Cell Quest Pro, FACS Diva, FlowJo, GEO dataset anaylsis, Adobe SuiteOther:-Mentored & technically trained various personnel at various levels (includes high school students, undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral fellow)Peer-reviewed publications:Makena RM., Ko M., Mekile AX., Senoo N., Dang DK., Warrington J., Buckhaults P., Talbot Jr. CC., Claypool SM., Rao R. “Secretory pathway Ca2+-ATPase SPCA2 regulates mitochondrial respiration and DNA damage response through store-independent calcium entry.” Redox Biology. 2022. DOI: 10.1016/j.redox.2022.102240Makena MR., Ko M., Dang DK., Rao R. “Epigenetic Modulation of SPCA2 Reverses Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition in Breast Cancer Cells.” Cancers (Basel). 2021. DOI: 10.3390/cancers13020259

Thesis Advisor: Rajini Rao, Ph.D.-Elucidated a unique role for a calcium pump in breast cancer evolution by linking its expression with a cell adhesion protein in breast cancer by utilizing various in vitro methods-Understood this role using cell biology techniques, lentiviral expression systems, protein analysis, and performing meta-analyses of publicly available datasets-Optimized an in vitro microcalcification assay in breast cancer cell lines from 28 days to 3 days and developed a quantifiable method for analysisPeer-Reviewed Publications:Dang D., Prasad H., Rao R. “Secretory pathway Ca2+-ATPases promote in vitro microcalcifications in breast cancer cells.” Molecular Carcinogenesis. 2017. DOI: 10.1002/mc.22695. PMID: 28618103Dang D., Rao R. “Calcium-ATPases: Gene disorders and dysregulation in cancer.” Biochimica et Biophysica Acta. 2015. DOI: 10.1016/j.bbamcr.2015.11.016. PMID: 26608610

Morrisville, North Carolina

-Assisted biochemistry team with transition and optimization of PCR assays from bench to microfluidic cartridges.-Assisted with the optimization of MRSA detection assays, molecular diagnostic tests and pharmacogenomic screening assays to "sample to answer" protocols on chip.-Worked on repeatability and interference studies to ensure robustness and reliability of assays on chip.

Raleigh, Nc

Laboratory of Stefan Franzen, Ph.D.-Used Visual Molecular Dynamics and Nanoscale Molecular Dynamics to model and to observe the molecular dynamics of dehaloperoxidase mutants-Ran kinetic assays on dehaloperoxidase mutants

Research Triangle Park, Nc

Laboratory of Traci Hall, Ph.D.-Worked on the expression, purification and the characterization of the miRNA Argonaute protein, Ago1 in the Macromolecular Structure laboratory.-Basic laboratory skills in biochemistry such as ion exchange and gel filtration chromatography were utilized

Doctor Of Philosophy - Phd, Cellular And Molecular Medicine

Bs, Biochemistry

Activities and Societies: The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, University Scholars Program, CALS Honors Program, Department of Chemistry.