Suzann Duan, PhD

Dr. Suzann Duan has worked since 2019 as a postdoc with Gastroenterology & Hepatology Division Chief Juanita L. Merchant, MD, PhD, at the U of A Cancer Center. Her research targets the tumor suppressor protein menin (MEN1), focusing on normal and pre-cancerous changes that lead to a type of cancer called gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, or GEP-NETs. GEP-NETs comprise a group of rare tumors that can secrete hormones and display neural features. Sometimes called carcinoid tumors or islet cell tumors, they can be benign or malignant. She began her academic career earning a bachelor’s degree (2013) from Boston University, and got her doctorate (2019) at the University of Nevada in cellular and molecular pharmacology and physiology. She considers Reno, NV, her hometown. In 2023, she received a five-year K01 award for $526,000 to study “the role of hedgehog and enteric neural crest cell reprogramming in neuroendocrine differentiation.” Among honors she’s received are the American Association of Cancer Research Women in Cancer Research Scholar Award (2024), North American Neuroendocrine Tumor Society Best Oral Presentation-Basic Science (2023), American Gastroenterological Association Council GRG Basic Science Trainee Award (2022), American Association of University Women American Dissertation Fellowship (2018), and the J.M. Hitchcock, PhD, Student Research Fellowship (2017).

Meet Dr. Duan!