Dan Landau, PhD

Professor of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine

Dan Landau and his lab study primarily human cancer which constitutes a unique phenomenon in evolutionary biology – ‘reverse engineering’ whereby cells rescind the multicellular contract and evolve to more closely resemble unicellular organisms. Importantly, the evolutionary plasticity of cancer imposes significant limitations on the potential of cancer therapies. Landau’s goal is to chart a roadmap of the basic dimensions that determine the course of cancer evolution, in order to devise therapies that directly anticipate and address tumor evolution. He has pioneered the study of intra-tumoral genetic and epigenetic diversity in patient samples to enable the study of cancer evolution in its natural environment.

The Convergence Seminar is organized by Gladstone’s Institute for Data Science and Biotechnology. This seminar series brings together scientists from varying disciplines to solve complex scientific questions and accelerate the path to cures.