Dr. Wei Dai

Biography

Wei Dai is a professor in the Department of Medicine and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at New York University. His research focuses on cell cycle regulation, checkpoint control, and the mechanisms underpinning genomic instability and carcinogenesis. He investigates the vital surveillance mechanisms, known as checkpoints, that monitor cell cycle processes to ensure high fidelity in the transmission of genetic information to daughter cells. Over the years, his extensive research has demonstrated how cancer can arise from damage to genes that control cell division and cell death, leading to genetic instability. This instability is characterized by alterations such as aneuploidy, which are present in various tumor cells. Professor Dai’s work highlights how loss of spindle checkpoint function can lead to aneuploidy, which in turn can provide a growth advantage to cancer cells. He is also involved in studying the biochemical pathways that regulate checkpoint-induced programmed cell death, with the goal of finding therapeutic interventions that can induce apoptosis in resistant tumor cells. His recent studies have focused on the function of Plk1 in cell cycle regulation and tumorigenesis.

Research Interests