The Dou laboratory aims to understand the biology of aging and to develop new approaches to intervene in diseases of aging. 

Zhixun Dou researches aging and cancer with an emphasis on nuclear events. The laboratory's findings suggest that the nucleus of a cell undergoes profound degeneration during aging and tumorigenesis. Their goal is to understand the mechanisms of nuclear degeneration and to develop novel strategies to intervene in chronic inflammation associated with aging and cancer.

Research topics in the laboratory include nuclear autophagy, cellular senescence, and chromatin & epigenetics in the broad scenarios of aging and cancer.

Biography

Dr. Dou is a faculty member of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He received his B.S. from Nankai University, China, and his Ph.D. from Stony Brook University, NY. He trained with Dr. Shelley Berger at the University of Pennsylvania for postdoctoral research, where he pioneered the study of nuclear degeneration in aging and cancer. He is a recipient of multiple career awards from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the National Institutes of Health. His laboratory employs molecular and cellular biology, genomics, and animal models to study the interface of aging and cancer.