Research Areas: Breast Cancer, Endocrinology
Research Program: Cancer Discovery Platforms Bridging the Engineering-Biology Continuum
Strategic Theme: Pathways & Mechanisms
Benita Katzenellenbogen’s research in cancer, endocrinology, and women’s health has focused on nuclear receptors, mainly estrogen receptors, and their mechanical, physiological, and integrative actions, aiming to improve the effectiveness of endocrine therapies in breast cancer. The Katzenellenbogen lab does basic and translational studies in breast cancer cells, preclinical human cancer models, and human tumor samples. It has identified factors associated with therapy resistance, aggressiveness, and early time to recurrence and their regulation in different breast cancer subtypes. They are interested 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 leading distinguished careers in universities and medical centers, governmental agencies, and the pharmaceutical/biotechnology industry. She received her MA and Ph.D. 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 CCIL Director.