As Associate Director for Consortium Research since 2017, Yibin Kang, PhD oversees an integrated planning and evaluation process to ensure tangible commitments to the Center across RU and PU. Kang received his BS from Fudan University in Shanghai in 1995, completed graduate studies at Duke University in 2000, and became an Irvington Institute postdoctoral fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, pioneering a functional genomic approach to elucidate mechanisms of breast cancer metastasis. Kang joined Princeton University in 2004 and is currently Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis Professor of Molecular Biology. Kang’s research focuses on molecular mechanisms of breast cancer metastasis. He discovered new genes that promote recurrence, metastasis, and treatment-resistance; delineated tumor-stromal interactions essential for metastatic growth; and identified novel regulators with dual functions in mammary gland cell fate determination and tumor progression. Kang has published more than 190 research articles, including many in high impact journals such as Science, Cancer Cell, and Nature Medicine. Kang was President of the Metastasis Research Society (2016-2018) and Chair of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Tumor Microenvironment Working Group (2018-2019). He has served as a standing committee member of the NCI Tumor Microenvironment study section, and on numerous national and international review panels.
Kang also serves as co-Director of the Genome Editing Shared Resource, and he is a founding member of the Princeton Branch of Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. Kang has teaching responsibilities in cancer biology and helps train the next generation of cancer researchers at PU, often through collaborative efforts with CINJ clinical colleagues. He serves on the PU graduate committee and graduate admissions committee.