Research Areas: Brain Cancer, Veterinary Oncology
Research Program: Cancer Discovery Platforms Bridging the Engineering-Biology Continuum
Strategic Theme: Natural & Model Systems
Timothy Fan laboratory works closely with other basic scientists to evaluate novel drugs and drug delivery strategies for cancer treatment. He has conducted preclinical murine tumor research for over 15 years and facilitated the development of novel drugs and drug delivery strategies for improving cancer therapy. Fan has worked closely with multiple scientific researchers involved in basic and translational cancer investigations, including long-term collaborator Paul Hergenrother, over the past 12 years. Fan has leveraged companion animals as informative tumor model systems to expedite novel drug development, such as the first procaspase-3 activator, PAC-1, which has now successfully advanced to human clinical trials. Fan’s unique training as a scientist and veterinarian allows him to rapidly investigate and translate novel treatment strategies in dogs with spontaneously arising cancers and conduct meaningful comparative oncology research, which may eventually aid in treating cancer in companion animals and human beings.
Fan is a professor of Veterinary Clinical Medicine and serves as the principal investigator of the Comparative Oncology Research Laboratory. Fan is also a core member of the Anticancer Discovery from Pets to People theme at the Carl Woese Institute for Genomic Biology. He received his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Degree at Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine in 1995. He completed a Small Animal Rotating Internship at the University of Illinois in 1996, a Small Animal Internal Medicine Residency at Cornell University in 1998, and a Medical Oncology Fellowship at the University of Illinois in 2000. Fan completed a Ph.D. in Tumor Immunology in 2007, where he investigated the anticancer effects of cytokine manipulation strategies.