Benita Katzenellenbogen’s research in cancer, endocrinology, and women’s health has been focused on nuclear receptors, especially estrogen receptors, and their mechanistic, physiological, and integrative actions, with the goal to improve the effectiveness of endocrine therapies in breast cancer. The Katzenellenbogen lab does basic and translational studies in breast cancer cells, in preclinical human cancer models, and in human tumor samples and have identified factors associated with therapy resistance, aggressiveness, and early time to recurrence and their regulation in different subtypes of breast cancer. They have a major interest in hormones and breast cancer and in mechanisms of sensitivity and resistance to cancer therapies, biomarker discovery, and improving cancer treatment effectiveness.
Katzenellenbogen has trained over 90 graduate and postdoctoral scientists, many of whom are leading distinguished careers in universities and medical centers, governmental agencies, and the pharmaceutical/biotechnology industry. She received her MA and PhD from Harvard University. Katzenellenbogen is the Swanlund Professor of Molecular and Integrative Physiology and Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign and holds affiliate appointments in the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology and the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. She currently serves as the Senior Advisor to the Director of the CCIL.