Originally published on Cornerstone, the CHOP Research Blog.

I composed this profile based on an interview with the investigator.

Excerpt:

“I’m excited being here at the right time,” said Kai Tan, PhD. “Hopefully we can really push translational medicine in cancer, faster, with our new algorithms.”

It is the “right time” because Dr. Tan, a cancer genomics and bioinformatics researcher, joined The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in January. Within weeks of his arrival, Vice President Joe Biden launched the cancer “moonshot” initiative during a visit with cancer researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and CHOP at Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center.

The rapid expansion of precision medicine in cancer — in which researchers aim to develop clinical treatments precisely targeted to a tumor’s genetic profile — has created an urgent need for scientists like Dr. Tan, who has pioneered the development of novel computational strategies and systems biology to identify molecular events that drive cancers.