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Cell Signaling and Cancer Biology
Cell signaling refers to the process by which extracellular substances produce an intracellular response. This is a normal event by which hormones, neurotransmitters and other substances regulate cell function. Many drugs and environmental agents use these same mechanisms to produce their most important effects. Thus, studying signal transduction mechanisms is a primary area of interest in pharmacology, and has been since the basic ideas of cell signaling processes were defined more than 50 years ago.
Many research opportunities related to cell signaling mechanisms, including both basic signaling processes themselves and aberrant signaling mechanisms related to disease states, exist within this program. One such fundamental process regulated through signal transduction mechanisms is cell growth. In large part, it is an alteration in the normal regulatory processes of cells that lead to cancer. The abnormal behavior of neoplastic cells can often be traced to an alteration in cell signaling mechanisms, such as receptor or cytoplasmic tyrosine kinases, altered levels of specific growth factors, intracellular processes for conveying membrane signals to the nucleus, portions of the transcription apparatus, and genes involved in the cell cycle and the regulation of DNA replication.
Courses in basic and advanced principles of signal transduction and in cancer biology are offered.
Pictured above: IGF-1 interacting with IGFBP-5 (40-92).Track Director: Steven A. Rosenzweig, Ph.D.
Mentors:
Joe B. Blumer, Ph.D., Cell and Molecular Pharmacology
James A. Cook, Ph.D., Physiology-Neuroscience
George E. Cooper, M.D., Cardiology
Craig Crosson, Ph.D., Ophthalmology
Warren Davis Jr., Ph.D., Cell and Molecular Pharmacology
Scott Eblen, Ph.D., Cell and Molecular Pharmacology
Rob G. Gourdie, Ph.D., Cell Biology and Anatomy
Lotta Granholm, D.D.S., Ph.D., Physiology-Neuroscience
Perry V. Halushka, Ph.D., M.D., Cell and Molecular Pharmacology
Yusuf A. Hannun, M.D., Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
John D. Hildebrandt, Ph.D., Cell and Molecular Pharmacology
Jennifer Isaacs, Ph.D., Cell and Molecular Pharmacology
Lyndon Key, M.D., Pediatrics and Cell and Molecular Pharmacology
Daniel R. Knapp, Ph.D., Cell and Molecular Pharmacology
Steven W. Kubalak, Ph.D., Cell Biology and Anatomy
Dhan Kuppuswamy, Ph.D., Medicine/Cardiology
David T. Kurtz, Ph.D., Cell and Molecular Pharmacology
Stephen M. Lanier, Ph.D., Cell and Molecular Pharmacology
Roger R. Markwald, Ph.D., Cell Biology and Anatomy
Paul J. McDermott, Ph.D., Cardiology
Carola A. Neumann, M.D., Cell and Molecular Pharmacology
James S. Norris, Ph.D., Microbiology and Immunology
Lina M. Obeid, M.D., Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
John R. Raymond, M.D., Medicine/Nephrology
Steven A. Rosenzweig, Ph.D., Cell and Molecular Pharmacology
Rick G. Schnellman, Ph.D., Pharmaceutical Sciences
Francis G. Spinale, M.D., Ph.D., Surgery
Kenneth D. Tew, Ph.D., D.Sc., Cell and Molecular Pharmacology
Jerry G. Webb, Ph.D., Cell and Molecular Pharmacology
