JHU professor of molecular biology, genetics wins cancer research prize

Duojia "DJ" Pan, a professor of molecular biology and genetics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, has been named a winner of the Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research.

Image caption: Duojia 'DJ' Pan

The award, given by the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, recognizes people ages 45 and younger who have conducted innovative cancer research. Pan's work used fruit flies and mice to study genes that regulate organ growth. He discovered the Hippo signaling pathway, a central mechanism that regulates tissue growth; without the hippo gene, flies and mice develop massively enlarged organs.

Pan and the other two winners announced this week will each receive $50,000 and speak about their research at a symposium in December.