Dan has a mission to inspire where art and science meet. He is currently Professor of Developmental, Molecular and Chemical Biology (since 2001) working on Cancer Biology and Dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Tufts University (since 2017).

Dan is rare in that he has had a parallel career in the visual arts. He is also adjunct professor of Drawing and Painting at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston) where he will teach a course on How the Brain Perceives Art. His art practice uses scientific materials as new art media (liquid nitrogen, elements of the Periodic Table, magnetic fields) to express things that have inspired him in science from childhood to the present day.

Dan has shown this work widely including Harvard University, Massachusetts State House, Boston Convention Center, Aidekman Arts center (Slater Concourse), the French Cultural Center, Whitehorse Cultural Center (Yukon), the Danforth Art Museum, the Museum of the National Center for Afro-American Artists, the Ontario Science Centre, the Peabody Essex Museum and the Boston Museum of Science.  He leads workshops and gives lectures at institutions around the world including The Cooper Union (New York) and University of Geneva (Switzerland). He is especially concerned with increasing diversity giving workshops to students from disadvantaged communities including the Boston Arts Academy and Josiah Quincy Middle School.