As a child, Lang Wu, Ph.D. (CTSA ’15), witnessed his grandfather battle esophageal cancer. This experience motivated him to consider a career that could help alleviate this kind of suffering.

So when he started learning about human genetics in high school biology — and how to calculate the possibility of developing a disease — he was intrigued.

Eventually, his deep interest in biology and desire to lessen the burden of disease would lead to a lauded career as a genetic and molecular epidemiologic researcher.

“Overall, Lang’s research has generated important results with significant implications for cancer prevention and prediction,” says Hu Li, Ph.D. (MPET ’13), Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics and professor of pharmacology at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. “Lang’s research can make a lasting impact on the cancer field. Specifically, his identified candidate susceptibility genes and splicing introns could substantially improve our understanding of the genetics and etiology of prostate and pancreatic cancers.”

Dr. Wu is an associate professor at the University of Hawai‘i Cancer Center and the founding director and principal investigator of the Pacific Center for Genome Research at the university. He is co-chair of the Diversity Centers for Genome Research Consortium.

Dr. Wu’s work has led to the identification of hundreds of susceptibility gene candidates for prostate, pancreatic and breast cancers, as well as multiple epigenetic, protein, metabolite, and glycan biomarkers for prostate and pancreatic cancer. He is an author of over 110 papers published in journals such as Nature Genetics, Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Nature Communications, Cancer Research, and Genome Medicine. He is an associate editor for Molecular Carcinogenesis and sits on the editorial board of several other journals.

“Overall, Lang’s research has generated important results with significant implications for cancer prevention and prediction.”

– Hu Li, Ph.D.

While Dr. Wu’s drive to make practical, clinical impacts started in childhood, it was reinforced by his time at Mayo Clinic. Dr. Wu earned his Ph.D. from Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

“As I was trained in the Clinical and Translational Science Track, I always think it is critical to be able to make the research findings of our work translatable, clinically useful, or practically useful for patients or community members,” he says, ideally resulting in enhanced risk prediction, early detection and therapeutic strategies.

That’s the goal of the Pacific Center for Genome Research (PCGR), which Dr. Wu founded in 2023. The PCGR was formed with the express intention to better understand the genetic basis of diseases that disproportionately affect diverse populations in Hawaii — such as Native Hawaiians and Asian Americans — and to ultimately improve disease diagnosis and treatment.

Separately, Dr. Wu leads a National Cancer Institute-funded $3.5 million research study to identify proteins that may be causative factors in prostate cancer development. Prostate cancer is among the most common cancers affecting Native Hawaiian men.

Dr. Wu attributes many of the skills he needed to establish the PCGR to his time at Mayo Clinic and the encouragement and training provided by his Ph.D. mentor, the late Gloria Petersen, Ph.D. (MSEP ’99, died 2023). This training helped him develop into an independent investigator, taught him to work in multidisciplinary teams and gave him first-hand experience in running a large successful research program, he says.

Today, he’s paying it forward. One of the most rewarding parts of his work, he says, is observing the growth, as well as scientific and career development, of his mentees.

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The Early and Mid-Career Alumni Awards recognize Mayo Clinic alumni who have made robust contributions to their areas of expertise in the realms of education, clinical practice, clinical and scientific research, and administration. Beyond their professional output, they demonstrate selfless community service and have consistently acted in a manner that is aligned with Mayo Clinic values. Read about the other 2024 recipients here.