| Benita
S. Katzenellenbogen, professor of Molecular & Integrative Physiology
and Cell & Structural Biology, was selected in March as a Swanlund
Chair, the highest endowed title awarded to a UI professor.
Katzenellenbogen, or Dr. K for short, received her
BA degree from the City University of New York, and earned MA and PhD
degrees from Harvard University. She completed a postdoctoral position at
the University of Illinois, and then joined the faculty in 1971.
As a cancer biologist and endocrinologist, Dr. K’s
interests are in the endocrine treatment and prevention of breast cancer.
Her laboratory works on many aspects of women’s health, including the
actions of estrogens and other female reproductive hormones in normal and
cancer target cells in the reproductive system and outside of the
reproductive system, including bone and the cardiovascular system.
Her research focuses on the regulation of gene
expression and cell proliferation by hormones and growth factors:
mechanisms of hormone and antihormone action in normal and cancer cells,
with particular emphasis on breast cancer. Her laboratory has played a key
role in understanding the biology of estrogen and progesterone receptors
and in elucidating mechanisms by which antiestrogens and SERMS, such as
Tamoxifen and Raloxifene, are effective in controlling breast cancer.
Current research includes changes that occur in
breast cancers that result in their resistance and limit the effectiveness
of Tamoxifen treatment, and on developing more selective and effective
antiestrogens and SERMS for breast cancer.
Her research has been published in more than 170
journal articles, and she has received numerous awards, honors, and
fellowships. Among them, she received the MERIT Award from the National
Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health, the Distinguished
Scientist Award from the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, and the
Jill Rose Award for outstanding research from the Breast Cancer Research
Foundation.
A fellow in the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences, Dr. K was recently appointed as a professor in the Center for
Advanced Study—the highest form of recognition the campus bestows on
faculty members for outstanding scholarship.
This year she is serving as president of the
Endocrine Society, one of the oldest, largest, and most distinguished
organizations devoted to research on hormones and the clinical practice of
endocrinology, including the study of diabetes, infertility, and the
neuroendocrine system.
Dr. K also considers training graduate students and
postdoctoral scientists as an important part of her work. "I’m
proud of the legacy of trainees and associates who are making important
contributions of their own."
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