Scientific Advisory Board
Timothy C. Wang is the Silberberg Professor of Medicine, Chief of the Digestive & Liver Diseases at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC), and Vice Chair for Academic Programs in Medicine. He is also Co-Leader of the Tumor Biology & Microenvironment Program at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (HICCC). He has served as the President of the American Gastroenterological Association Institute (AGA). Dr. Wang received his BA from Williams College, Summa Cum Laude, and his MD (AΩA) from the Columbia College of Physicians & Surgeons. He was on the faculty at MGH/Harvard for ten years before moving to UMass Medical School as Chief of Gastrointestinal (GI) diseases in 2000, and since 2004 has been Chief of GI at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons. He has led an independent research lab for over thirty years focused on the relationship between inflammation, stem cells and cancer, and the molecular mechanisms of gastrointestinal carcinogenesis. In recent years, his lab has been known for showing that nerves modulate the growth of solid tumors. His lab, in collaboration with Dr. James Fox at MIT, developed numerous mouse models of Helicobacter-dependent gastric cancer. His lab also defined several markers of GI stem cells and defined key niche signals that promote their progression to cancer. Author of over 370 original publications and 80 invited reviews, editorials and chapters, Dr. Wang is currently Senior Deputy Editor of Cancer Prevention Research and the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Yamada Textbook of Gastroenterology. He has organized numerous conferences, including AACR Symposia, NCI Workshops, Keystone Conferences and NCI Clinical Trials Planning Meetings on Gastric Cancer. He has headed several multidisciplinary research programs, including the CUIMC NCI U54 Tumor Microenvironment (TMEN) program, the CUIMC NCI Barrett’s Esophageal Translational Research Network (BETRNet) program, the NIDDK Intestinal Stem Cell Consortium (ISCC) at Columbia, and most recently has been the Research Director of The Pancreas Cancer Center at CUIMC. He is the Associate Director of the NIH-funded Digestive and Liver Disease Research Center at Columbia. He also leads the Columbia Institutional Conflict of Interest (ICOI) and is the Columbia Alpha Omega Alpha Councilor. He is a recipient of the NIH/NIDDK Merit Award (R37) as well as the Outstanding Investigator Award (R35 OIA, 2016-2030) from the NCI, among other grants. He received the Arthur and Irene Fishberg Prize for outstanding research from CUIMC, and the Julius Friedenwald medal, AGA’s highest honor, for his contributions to the GI field. Dr Wang considers mentoring to be a critical part of his service to the University and has directly trained many faculty, postdoctoral fellows, visiting scientists, students, and staff. His trainees have subsequently established themselves variously, through faculty appointments in reputed academic institutions, entrepreneurships in the field of medical research and leadership positions in pharmaceutical industries worldwide.
