Xiao-Fan Wang was born in Wulumuqi, China. He entered Wuhan University in 1978 to receive his college education following the reform of the education system. In 1982, as one of the first group of Chinese students sent to study biology in the US, he started his graduate training in transcriptional regulation of immunoglobulin genes during B cell development with Dr. K. Calame at UCLA and received his Ph.D. in 1986. He then spent five years at Whitehead Institute and MIT as a postdoctoral fellow under the guidance of Dr. R. Weinberg. The main achievement during this period was the molecular cloning of transforming growth factor ß (TGF-ß) type II and type III receptors. In early 1992 he moved to Duke University Medical Center as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology & Cancer Biology. He is currently Professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Donald and Elizabeth Cooke Professor of Experimental Oncology. His other academic activities include serving on the editorial boards of a number of scientific journals, such as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Biological Chemistry. The current research in the Wang laboratory mainly focuses on the elucidation of molecular nature and signaling mechanisms associated with tumor microenvironment that promotes tumor progression and metastasis. Particularly, the lab is interested in the roles of specific microRNAs as mediators of TGF-ß or hypoxia to affect the biological nature of tumor microenvironment, via the interactions with the immune system and the recruitment of various types of stromal cells, to enhance tumor metastasis. The lab is also studying the mechanisms underlying the phenomenon of cellular senescence