David A. Wink, Jr., PhD
National Cancer Institute, NIH
Bethesda, Maryland

Session Chair
Nitrite and Cardiac Energetics

Dr Wink received his PhD in Chemistry from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Following a postdoctoral fellowship in Biochemistry as a National Research Service Award recipient at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he joined the Laboratory of Comparative Carcinogenesis at the NCI Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center (FCRDC) as a Staff Fellow. He then joined the Radiation Biology Branch at the NCI in 1995, where he received tenure in November 1999.

Dr Wink's lab is exploring the role of nitric oxide in cancer. NO is known to participate in various processes associated with cancer; it can promote tumor growth but can also be tumoricidal. To understand the chemical reactions that may account for the paradoxical effects of NO in cancer (and other conditions), Dr Wink's group has compiled the chemical reactions of NO that take place in vivo; with the main goals of understanding the effect of these reactions on cytokine function, DNA repair, cytotoxicity, and tissue damage; developing methods for detecting and delivering NO in vivo, and exploring how NO donors and inhibitors may modulate chemotherapeutic agents and response to radiation.