MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth
Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences

Dr. Boyi Gan

Dr. Boyi  Gan

Regular Member

Associate Professor

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Departments of Experimental Radiation Oncology & Molecular and Cellular Oncology

Our lab studies the roles of energy sensing and metabolism in cancer and stem cells. Specifically, we are interested in these questions: 1) How normal/cancer/stem cells sense energy availability? 2) How cancer cell adapt to survive and grow under energy stress? 3) How to translate our understanding of energy sensing/metabolism in cancer into novel effective cancer therapeutics?

Potential rotation projects include:

  1. Study the roles of novel long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in energy sensing and tumor metabolism (relevant publication: Liu X, et al, lncRNA NBR2 engages a metabolic checkpoint by regulating AMPK under energy stress. Nature Cell Biology, 2016; Xiao ZD, et al, Energy stress-induced lncRNA FILNC1 represses c-Myc-mediated energy metabolism and inhibits renal tumor development Nature Communications, 2017)

  2. Investigating epigenetic mechanisms in cancer metabolism by studying BAP1, a tumor suppressor that is an important epigenetic regulators (relevant publication: Dai F, et al, BAP1 inhibits the ER stress gene regulatory network and modulates metabolic stress response. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 2017)

  3. The role of glutamate/cystine antiporter SLC7A11 in the regulation of nutrient dependency and cancer metabolism (relevant publication: Pranavi Koppula, et al. The glutamate/cystine antiporter SLC7A11/xCT enhances cancer cell dependency on glucose by exporting glutamate. J. Biol. Chem., 2017).

A tutorial experience in my laboratory would provide an opportunity to learn cancer signaling pathways, cancer metabolism, and cancer genetics by employing in vitro and in vivo mouse models. Please visit our lab webpage for more information:


MDACC Faculty

Gan Lab

Contact Information

Phone: 713.792.8653


Office: MDA Z7.3034 (Unit 0066)


Ph.D. - Cornell University - 2006


Faculty is Currently: