Dr. Pan graduated with a B.S. in Cell Biology at Lanzhou University in Gansu, China. He received both M.S. and Ph.D. in Animal Nutrition with emphasis on Molecular Biology at Virginia Tech. Dr. Pan also received postdoctoral training in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Florida, College of Medicine in Gainesville, FL. In June of 2006 Dr. Pan joined the University of Illinois faculty. Dr. Pan teaches several advanced nutrition classes to undergraduate and graduate students and has been included on the "Incomplete List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by their Students" many times. Dr. Pan has over 50 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters and receives grant support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the United States Department of Agriculture, and industry.

Early nutrition programming with an emphasis on molecular mechanisms of developmental origins of chronic diseases in offspring.While genetic factors, lifestyles, and environment have all been cited as important components of developmental diseases, increasing evidence suggest that maternal factors--especially those that occur in utero and during early postnatal life--also play a significant role in disease development. The long-term goal of my laboratory is to understand the underlying molecular mechanisms by which maternal dietary factors influence the risk of diseases in later life, in order that effective interventions can be developed to reduce the incidence of the disease. We utilize a variety of animal models of human developmental diseases, including obesity, diabetes and cancer. People in my laboratory working on these animal models will also use a wide range of molecular biology techniques including analysis of chromatin structure, promoter analysis, gene delivery, quantitative real-time PCR, sequencing analysis and bioluminescent Imaging.