© JILL HUNTERWeiwei Dang attended Peking University in his hometown of Beijing, China. Having taken a liking to science in high school, he spent a year working in the lab of molecular biologist Bing-Gen Ru developing a method to test the concentration of metallothionein in rabbits as an indicator of environmental levels of heavy metals. By the time he graduated in 1999, he knew he wanted to pursue a career in the lab, and “at the time, it was everybody’s opinion that the U.S. is at the very forefront of biomedical research.” So he headed to Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, and there he spent a graduate rotation in the group of biochemist Blaine Bartholomew, who introduced him to chromatin and epigenetics.
In Bartholomew’s lab, Dang interrogated the interactions between the chromatin-remodeling enzyme ISW2 and nucleosomes. He mapped the DNA locations on the nucleosomes where the enzyme made contact; then, he mapped those contact positions on the enzyme.1,2 “He did some pretty hard work, to be honest,” says Bartholomew, now at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, adding that the DNA photoaffinity approach Dang used is a tedious process that requires patience and attention to detail. “It does take someone with good hands and good technique.”
Dang was hooked on chromatin biology. As he wrapped up his PhD work, he began scoping out potential postdoc advisors at meetings, and was fascinated by a presentation given by Shelley Berger, now director of the Epigenetics Program at ...
