Bin Ren, M.D., Ph.D., FAHA

Areas of Interest: angiogenesis, cancer, endothelial cell immunity in cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, de novo arteriogenesis, epigenetics & epitranscriptomics, ischemic heart and vascular diseases, vascular niche in stem cells and cancer stem cells, bioengineered organoids for disease models, innovative therapeutics and precision medicine

Biography

Dr. Bin Ren is a tenured Associate Professor of Surgery and an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the School of Medicine, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He is also a faculty member of UAB Graduate School, a primary member and scientist of UAB Nutrition Obesity Research Center (NORC), a senior scientist in the Diabetes Research Center of UAB Comprehensive Diabetes Center, and a scientist at UAB O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center and Comprehensive Neuroscience Center as well as a member of the UAB Integrative Center for Aging Research (ICAR). Dr. Ren received his Bachelor of Art degree from Anhui Normal University, his Medical Degree from Anhui Medical University (original Shanghai Southeast Medical College), and his PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). He has completed a three year postdoctoral fellowship with Drs Roya Khosravi-far and Jack Lawler at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Department of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Ren then worked as a research fellow with Dr. Helen Vlassara, the Director of Division of Experimental Diabetes and Aging at Mount Sinai School of Medicine Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Adult Development, and a research associate with Dr. Michael Simons, the Director of Angiogenesis Research Center and the Chief of Division of Cardiology and Professor in the Department of Medicine, Pharmacology and Toxicology at Dartmouth Medical School in Dartmouth College, and a staff research associate with Dr. Roy Silverstein, the Chairman of Department of Cell Biology at the Cleveland Clinic. Before joining the faculty of UAB, he was an assistant professor in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at the Medical College of Wisconsin and an assistant investigator in the Blood Research Institute at the BloodCenter of Wisconsin. Dr. Ren has worked on endothelial cell and vascular biology in the context of cardiovascular disease, cancers and diabetes for over 20 years and has authored more than 60 journal articles, chapters, and scientific abstracts, with numerous presentations at national and international meetings, as well as academic institutions.

Dr. Ren has served on editorial boards of Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology (Signaling), Frontiers in Bioscience, and Discoveries, and as an ad hoc reviewer for many prestigious biomedical journals such as Journal of Clinical Investigation, ATVB, PLOS Medicine, Journal of Pathology, Science Signaling, Nature Communication, and Neurobiology of Aging.  He has been elected an AHA Fellow in Council on Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, is a life member of the Chinese American Academy of Cardiology, and a member of American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). He has also served as a member on several peer reviewer panels in the American Heart Association (AHA) since 2009, the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) External Reviewers Exchange Consortium (USA), and the Medical Research Council (MRC) in the United Kingdom (UK). Dr. Ren is a committee member of the prestigious AHA/Allen Initiative in Brain Health and Cognitive Impairment (Phase 1 & 2 Review Panels). He also serves on an NIH study section.

Dr. Ren actively participates in academic services and educational programs in addition to conducting his biomedical research. As a principle investigator, his research has been supported by the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, the Central Society for Clinical and Translational Research, the Ann’s Hope Foundation, and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI). He is currently leading an innovative research program exploring endothelial differentiation and angiogenesis in cardiovascular diseases and cancers. The research in his laboratory focuses on the epigenetic and transcriptional regulation of angiogenesis and arteriogenesis as these processes are involved in cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, neurological disorders, and obesity.

Education

M.D.
Anhui Medical College, Hefei, China
Bachelor of Medicine

Ph.D.
School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei (Chinese Academy of Science) 
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Fellowship
Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachussetts  
Angiogenesis and Cancer Biology, Molecular Pathology

Fellowship
Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Adult Development, Division of Experimental Diabetes and Aging, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York 
Endothelial Dysfunction in Aging and Cardiovascular Complications of Diabetes

Contact

Campus Address
Wallace Tumor Institute, UAB O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center
WTI 630C2

Phone
(205) 996-2582

Email
bren@uabmc.edu