David H. Wang, MD, PhD is an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center and a staff medical oncologist at the VA North Texas Health Care System in Dallas, Texas.  He received his undergraduate degree from Asbury College, his medical degree from Vanderbilt University, and his graduate degree in Cellular and Molecular Medicine from the Johns Hopkins University.  During medical school, Dr. Wang was selected as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute-National Institutes of Health Research Scholar and studied TGF-beta superfamily signaling at the National Cancer Institute.  Following medical school, Dr. Wang completed his residency in internal medicine on the Osler Medical Service of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and his medical oncology fellowship at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins.

Using a developmental biology approach, Dr. Wang’s lab group was the first to identify the role of Hedgehog signaling in Barrett’s esophagus pathogenesis.  They have gone on to characterize downstream signaling pathways and transcription factors as the molecular mechanism by which epithelial transcommitment may occur.  A second focus of his lab is developing biomarkers and molecularly targeted therapy strategies for esophageal cancer.  These studies have been funded by grants from the Department of Veterans Affairs, the American Cancer Society, and the National Institutes of Health.

A clinically active oncologist, Dr. Wang was instrumental in developing a multi-disciplinary GI malignancy clinic at the Dallas VA Medical Center and serves as the principal investigator of investigator-initiated and industry-sponsored clinical trials.  He serves as the oncology team leader for the UT Southwestern Esophageal Diseases Center, a member of the national VA GI Clinical Trials Steering Committee, and a member of the Via Pathways GI Cancer clinical guidelines panel.

Dr. Wang is a member of the American Gastroenterogical Association, the American Association for Cancer Research, and the American Society of Clinical Oncology.  He regularly reviews manuscripts and participates in grant review nationally and internationally on the subjects of metaplasia and gastrointestinal cancer.