Kun-Liang Guan, Ph.D.

Dr. Guan is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Moores Cancer Center at UCSD. He received his B.S. Degree from Hangzhou University in Zhejiang China, and subsequently completed his Ph.D at Purdue University with Henry Weiner. His post-doctoral work in Jack Dixon’s lab lead to multiple discoveries, including dual specific phosphatases. Kun-Liang has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the MacArthur Fellowship (also known as the genius award). He has made seminal discoveries in biomedical sciences spanning a wide range of disciplines, including bacterial and viral pathogenesis, cancer biology, and metabolism. Currently, his laboratory studies signaling mechanisms that control organ size and tumorigenesis, with particular emphasis on the mTOR and Hippo-YAP pathways.