Professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology
Dr. Greg Wang is Full Professor at Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Department of Pathology (adjunct) and Duke Cancer Institute, Duke University. He received his Ph.D. degree from University of California, San Diego, followed by a postdoctoral training with Dr. C David Allis at Rockefeller University. Before joining Duke in 2023, he has been a full-time faculty member since 2011 at Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill. Dr. Wang’s research programs broadly focus on mechanistic understandings of how chemical modifications of chromatin (including DNA methylation and histone modifications) regulate gene expression and cell fate determination during development, and how their deregulations lead to human diseases, notably cancer. His laboratory recently identified and characterized novel proteins that specifically bind to histone lysine methylation. These histone modification regulators are crucially involved in gene and genome regulation, development, immunity, and/or cancerous transformation. Importantly, discovery of small-molecule inhibitors to target chromatin modulators has become an area of intensive investigation and holds great promise for therapies. Dr. Wang’s research excellence and expertise in the broad fields of chromatin biology and cancer epigenetics have earned him grant funding of NIH and private foundations such as an American Cancer Society Research Scholar, an American Society of Hematology Scholar in basic science, a Janet Rowley Medical Research award from Gabrielle's Angel Foundation for Cancer Research, and a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Scholar. Greg Wang also receives the recognitions from the institute such as the Philip and Ruth Hettleman Prize for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement (2019, UNC) and the Yang Family Biomedicine Scholar (2020, UNC), as well as the American Society for Biochemistry & Molecular Biology (ASBMB) Young Investigator Award (2021). One of Dr. Wang’s research goals is to yield potential drug candidates with preclinical cancer models, which shall pave a way for translating new therapeutic approaches in future.
Appointments and Affiliations
- Professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology
- Member of the Duke Cancer Institute
Contact Information
- Office Location: MSRB3, 3 Genome Court, Durham, NC 27710
- Email Address: greg.wang@duke.edu
- Websites:
Education
- Ph.D. University of California, San Diego, 2006
Representative Publications
- Li, Jie, Zhucui Li, Jiekai Yin, Yinsheng Wang, Deyou Zheng, Ling Cai, and Gang Greg Wang. “The sotos syndrome gene Nsd1 safeguards developmental gene enhancers poised for transcription by maintaining the precise deposition of histone methylation.” J Biol Chem 301, no. 5 (May 2025): 108423. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbc.2025.108423.
- Yu, Yao, Xufen Yu, Bo Pan, Ho Man Chan, H Ümit Kaniskan, Jian Jin, Ling Cai, and Gang Greg Wang. “Pharmacologic degradation of WDR5 suppresses oncogenic activities of SS18::SSX and provides a therapeutic of synovial sarcoma.” Sci Adv 11, no. 17 (April 25, 2025): eads7876. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.ads7876.
- Corbin, Joshua, Xufen Yu, Jian Jin, Ling Cai, and Gang Greg Wang. “EZH2 PROTACs target EZH2- and FOXM1-associated oncogenic nodes, suppressing breast cancer cell growth.” Oncogene 43, no. 36 (August 2024): 2722–36. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41388-024-03119-9.
- Chen, Xinyi, Yiran Guo, Ting Zhao, Jiuwei Lu, Jian Fang, Yinsheng Wang, Gang Greg Wang, and Jikui Song. “Structural basis for the H2AK119ub1-specific DNMT3A-nucleosome interaction.” Nat Commun 15, no. 1 (July 23, 2024): 6217. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-50526-3.
- Cheng, I-Hsin, Wen-Chieh Pi, Chung-Hao Hsu, Yiran Guo, Jun-Lin Lai, Gang G. Wang, Bon-Chu Chung, Robert G. Roeder, and Wei-Yi Chen. “TAF2, within the TFIID complex, regulates the expression of a subset of protein-coding genes.” Cell Death Discovery 10, no. 1 (May 2024): 244. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41420-024-02017-z.